Her Pain Within
by Thine Dreamer Doth Take Flight
Summary: A crossover between YGO and YGO 5D's. Someone Kara crossed wrong is dead-set on revenge, even to the point she wants to make it so Kara never exists. To do so, she opens a portal to the past to kill Carrie. SPOILERS FOR STRENGTH WITHIN! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! ON HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Lately, my imagination has sucked tremendously, but I've had a lot of ideas for holiday-themed stories. Here is one of those stories that has managed to come to fruition, a crossover between **Yu-Gi-Oh! **and **Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.** I own none of the characters except for my OCs, namely Carrie and Kara. And this Carrie is based off of the one in **Her Pain, His Heart**, okay? If you don't know who Kara is, I suggest reading **Strength Within** to find out. All right, you ready? Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Her Pain Within<strong>

Chapter 1

It was that time of year again. The season of giving and receiving, of holiday cheer and peace on Earth and all that jazz had come. With all the trouble they had all gone through recently, it was good to finally have time to sit back and relax without the world being at risk of falling to pieces. All the evil in all times had been laid to rest for the time being, granting heroes the chance to rest and enjoy themselves for a little while.

Carrie walked through the streets of Domino City, wearing a light blue coat with synthetic white fur lining the thing for warmth and style with a matching pair of gloves and earmuffs. The air was crisp and chilly; her breath could be seen with every exhale. Snow had wasted no time in falling on the little city in Japan, gracing the world with its white flakes just a week before Christmas. The blonde stepped through it in her light blue snow-boots along her way to Grandpa's game shop. She loved the snow and would have loved nothing more than to stop and play in it like a child, but she had promised to help the old man put up decorations despite it being a little late to be doing such a thing.

All the presents for her friends had been bought and wrapped; they lay hidden in her house where no one could find them. Kaiba's generous paycheck made what had once been a hard task very easy. He had even given his employees a three-week leave for the holidays, his cheap Christmas gift to them. He kept his business from falling apart from home in his office, single-handedly keeping Kaiba Corporations from going under in their absence. Of course, he also had a little help from Alyssa, but only a little. Carrie was grateful for his gift and wondered what other things people might give her in this season of giving.

One person's Item was making her neck and chest a bit cold. Metal and winter never did mix well. The Millennium Puzzle, which she wore constantly around her throat, was growing ever colder with winter's caress, freezing her despite her warm clothing. If it didn't house the soul of her boyfriend within, she would never take it out of doors with her. Ever.

_I hope you're happy I love you, _Carrie thought bitterly as she tried not to shiver.

"I said you could leave me at home. You are the one that insisted on bringing me along," Yami reminded her, walking beside her without suffering the effects of winter. "You did not want to leave me behind because you thought I might become lonely. Your suffering is your own doing, Carrie."

_Yeah, but whose bright idea was it to make the Millennium Items out of gold? Didn't they realize metal freezes in the cold?_

"Carrie, they were created in the desert," Yami pointed out.

_Deserts get cold, too. At night it can dip below zero. Or did you forget that along with everything else?_

"No, I didn't forget. But people didn't usually wear their metal jewelry to bed. It was put aside until morning when it wasn't cold," Yami replied.

_I don't have that luxury. We're not in some God-forsaken desert here, and it's too risky to put you away until it's not cold. You might feel neglected, and I don't want to make my man feel neglected. So instead of arguing about how this dumb Puzzle is dumb, I'm just going to suffer through the cold and hard nips because I love you._

Yami sweat-dropped. "Hard…?"

_Don't tell me you don't know what happens when a girl's chest gets cold..._

"Oh, I know. I know. But I…didn't expect you to say that so bluntly," Yami murmured, flustered in shock and embarrassment.

Carrie shrugged with a smile. It amazed her how she could still surprise Yami despite being at his side for more than two years now. He still surprised her on occasion, too, but not as often. Perhaps it was their own failure at being in a relationship that fueled this; no one could know for sure. At least it kept some magic in their relationship and stopped it from being so boring.

She stepped into Grandpa's shop, causing the bell above the door to ring in response. The gang was already busy putting decorations up without her at the old man's instruction in an attempt to belatedly turn this place into a seasonal paradise. In the window was a mannequin of Dark Magician Girl dressed in red and white instead of her usual blue and pink with a sack thrown over her shoulder, winking at the people who walked by. Kuriboh was sticking his head out of the sack, a pretty red ribbon tied around him as he looked cutely at the world. A Christmas tree stood beside them, decorated with ornaments shaped like Duel Monsters. Hoshiningen sat aglow at the top of the tree while wearing a small Santa cap on his uppermost point. Dark Magician, dressed similar to his female counterpart, stood there with his arms crossed and no readable expression on his face as was normal for him.

Tea moved cautiously around the display, throwing fake snow around the pretend Duel Monsters to add to the Christmas effect. Tristan was hanging lights and ornaments around the shop itself with Joey's help because they were the only ones tall enough to do so. Yugi helped his grandfather farther back in the shop to erect another Christmas scene in the shop itself. As Grandpa had said before, "It's never too late to get in the spirit, and there's not such a thing as too much Christmas."

Much to Carrie's surprise, she saw Yugi and Grandpa struggling to put up a Wingweaver mannequin. It didn't surprise her that they were struggling—that thing was like six feet tall with six long-ass wings—but that they were using _her_. She wasn't a very popular or famous Duel Monster. Only Jessica seemed to really adore that Fairy. She passed them without saying a word of greeting to look in the back room where the decorations were stored. She was amazed to find other less-popular Duel Monsters decked out for the Christmas season. Gyakutenno Megami, Cyber Commander, Magician of Faith, Flame Swordsman, and Summoned Skull were all waiting their turns to be placed around the store or in displays. They looked strange, but in a good way.

_Wow...He really went all-out for this,_ Carrie thought, stars in her eyes.

"Uh…A little help here, Carrie," Grandpa called as he and Yugi almost dropped Wingweaver to the ground because her wings were stabbing at them.

"Oh, sorry," Carrie apologized, catching the front of Wingweaver before she could smash into the floor. The angel-winged Fairy in the yellow robe was saved, and a few moments later she stood proudly over them, lifeless eyes looking out into the distance. "You guys have done really well here. These decorations are outstanding. There's hardly anything left for me to do now."

"Actually, there's still plenty to do. Grandpa has too many ideas for his own good," Yugi commented with a grin.

Grandpa chuckled. "Well, you can't hold it against me. I like this time of year. It's a time for family and celebration…and business is always booming. All of this will attract more customers. I'll be rich before you know it!"

"So, I'm guessing a Christmas-themed Uria and Egyptian Gods was a no-go," Carrie assumed.

"It couldn't be done. They were too big and would have been too expensive even with your and Alyssa's assistance. But I think we did pretty well without them," Grandpa replied, surveying their handiwork proudly.

"I'll help you finish with the rest. Just give me a moment to take off my winter gear," Carrie said.

Yugi and Grandpa returned to the back room to grab another mannequin while Carrie headed for the front counter, removing her gloves and earmuffs in the process. Her coat came off and found a place with her other wintry clothes next to her friends' discarded coats. She waved to her other friends to acknowledge their existence before going back to help decorate.

What a good Christmas this would be for Carrie.

She just hoped nothing would go wrong, or even amiss.

* * *

><p>Christmas and winter were the last things on a tri-color-haired girl as she quickly dodged the fist of some purple-haired chick that had decided to attack her for no apparent reason. She launched her booted foot into her attacker's stomach to knock her away. The foe would not be so easily thwarted—her gold eyes flashed in fury as she lunged at her prey once more. The victim's green eyes narrowed as she blocked the fists and claws of her adversary with a single arm before pushing her back. They paused a moment to catch their breaths.<p>

"Who are you? What the hell do you want with me?" the woman with tri-colored hair demanded, not letting her guard down for a second as was usual for her.

"Who I am is something you should already know, Kara," the purple-haired assailant hissed. "As for what I want…I want you dead! I want your blood to run on the pavement, for that face of yours to be mangled beyond recognition, and for your heart to explode in the palm of my hand! After what you've done to me and my family, you deserve the most painful death imaginable! You stupid whore!"

"You've got some nerve…for a coward. Issuing threats like that and calling me a whore, but you won't tell me your name. Such a cowardly, dumbass move," Kara remarked with a small smirk.

"We'll see who the dumbass is when you're dead, Kara Muto!" the assailant growled.

"I won't die to the likes of you. I'm stronger than you, have more to live for than you, and have a purer heart than you could possibly have. And since I'm such a nice person, I'll give you one last chance to walk away and I'll pretend this never happened. Take it, or else you'll be so damn messed up that you'll wish you'd never been brainless enough to challenge me," Kara stated coldly.

"I'll never surrender to shit like you!" her opponent shouted as she charged at Kara once more, intent on ending her life.

Kara grappled with the purple-haired woman, taking blows sometimes but giving them as well. She hardly let herself get knocked down to the ground and was always quick to get back on her feet in order to keep her enemy from getting the advantage. Her enemy was no amateur, either. That purple-haired coward could take punches and didn't stay down for very long. She managed to get Kara in the eye a few times, as well as make blood come down from the corner of her mouth. But the battle was decided even before the first punch had been thrown. The result would be inevitable.

The attacker collapsed in a pile of snow, bruised all over and coughing up blood into the pure white flakes. Kara stood over her, casually wiping blood from her face with the back of her gloved hand. She was bruised a little, but she'd be fine. After all, she had been in much worse scuffles than this in her past. She just hoped her purple-haired attacker had learned her lesson and would stay away now.

"Have a nice day, bitch," Kara muttered as she turned on her heel to head home.

"…You haven't seen the last of me, Kara Muto," the woman muttered vehemently into the snow, weakly glaring over her shoulder at her prey. "I will…see to it that your family …is eradicated from this world! I swear it!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Kara grumbled with a roll of her eyes.

She left the area without looking back, more worried about what lied before her than her random assailant that wanted her dead. The boys would not be happy when she came home with a black eye and blood on her face. Yusei would be the most unhappy of the group; she could almost hear him chiding her already. He knew she didn't get in fights on purpose. She only hurt those that hurt her first. But they had a reputation on the line, as well as their safety. Unlike before when they weren't well-known, she couldn't go fighting any and every person that looked at her the wrong way. Even if she explained what went down, it would still end in some sort of lecture.

_As if I didn't have enough shit to deal with already, _Kara thought, exasperated.

Kara took the long way home, wanting to delay the lecture while hoping that no more trouble would befall her along the way. She was luck—no vandals or crooks or grudge-holders of any kind jumped out at her at their own peril. That being said, she still had wounds that needed explaining, as well as having to talk her friends out of pursuing legal action against whoever that woman was because it could come back to bite them in the ass as things had a tendency to do.

_I wonder who she is, _Kara thought, heedless of the falling snow as she walked with her hands stuffed in her pockets. _She couldn't have been some random person that just decided to hate my life. That anger...It had to be from personal experience. Somehow, someway, she has a real reason to hate me. But...I can't recall having ever met her. She seems somewhat familiar, but I don't remember her. Someone like that would be unforgettable, and yet..._

Suddenly Kara was a bit more worried about her assailant than before. This could present a serious problem if it wasn't taken care of soon. She just hoped she could handle this on her own without her friends meddling. This was her problem, not theirs.

She waved to her landlady Zora as she passed by the window before unlocking the door to the house she shared with Yusei, Jack, Crow, and Bruno. It sure wasn't easy being the only girl surrounded by four guys, but it wasn't something new. After all, she had been stuck in the Facility with hundreds of guys and no other female prisoners. This was actually much more peaceful than that hell…most of the time.

Without even looking, Kara dropped her coat onto the rack and headed downstairs into the garage. The boys spent most of their time working on their runners as well as other mechanical things that were above her head. If they didn't need to eat, sleep, and piss they'd probably never leave their work. It drove her and Zora crazy how they were always working on one thing or another. The house was never quiet for long.

As she expected, they were doing something with runners again. Crow was perched on his stationary Blackwing as it revved at full speed. Sensors read things about his runner and processed those things into information that appeared on the computer screens that Yusei and Bruno were looking at. Jack stood by the runner to make sure his buddy didn't do something stupid to fall off or anything. Kara only noticed these guys as she walked down the concrete steps to join them on the floor. They didn't notice her at all; she could probably leave without being called out.

Yusei motioned for Crow to cut the engine and the garage fell silent again. The boys exchanged some duel runner mumbo-jumbo, saying what there needed to be more of and what needed work and other things Kara didn't understand. She wondered if she could walk past them to the couch that was down here without them noticing. One look at her face and they'd be all over her. She didn't want that. So why had she come downstairs? Well, she didn't want to be lonely…and she didn't want to start on dinner if the boys were too busy to eat.

Just as she was about to slip out of sight, blue-haired Bruno looked away from his computer screen and noticed her creeping away from them. She wasn't a very lucky girl today…

"Hey, Kara! When did you get back?" he asked, drawing attention to her so she had no chance of escape.

_Damn!_ "Just now," she replied as she kept her back to them. "I haven't been back long."

"We're making some huge progress on improving our runners. Yusei and Bruno made this awesome new program, and it's totally supped Blackwing up! It could probably take on any runner ever made now!" Crow beamed as the boys removed their safety goggles and came to stand away from their working equipment.

"Sounds great," Kara murmured.

"We could do the same for your runner. You know, after ours are taken care of," Jack offered in his cocky way that was kinda irritating.

"Sure. That'd be nice," Kara said tiredly, really wishing the guys would leave her alone.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Yusei asked, referring to why she had been out in the first place.

Kara sighed and closed her eye that wasn't swollen over. "…No. Not one store in New Domino City had it in stock. You'd think that the technology capital of the world would have something so basic, but no. It doesn't. You'd think that the city that used to be the hometown of my great-grandmother and great-grandfather would have it, but no. It doesn't. I suppose the damn thing got lost over time. That's just so fan-tucking-fastic. The one thing I wanted of my family's heritage that was supposed to be kept in the city is lost. Damn Zero Reverse, and damn humanity, too. Maybe Mirage wasn't so wrong in wanting this place destroyed."

"That's some pretty dark talk there," Bruno commented with a frown. "Are you okay?"

The woman took a deep breath. "I'm fine."

"If you're so fine, then why do you have a black eye?" Leo demanded, popping up seemingly out of nowhere to point an accusing finger at her swollenness.

With his sudden appearance, Kara realized they had company. Akiza, Luna, Kahlan, and Carly were seated on the couch she had been heading to—she had failed to see them before because she was focused on the guys and not anyone that wasn't usually there. She quickly turned away from Leo and covered her bruised eye with her hand.

"I wasn't expecting anyone," Kara muttered in a cold voice, trying to get people off her back before they could even think of bothering her.

"We came to spend time with you guys. It is, after all, almost Christmas, and therefore a time for gathering," her twin Kahlan commented. Her violet eyes were locked onto Kara, gleaning things only she could glean. "But that's no longer important. What in Kami's name happened to you?"

"Nothing," Kara barked, though lying was futile now.

"Kara, stop lying and avoiding us. Tell us the truth," Yusei said with a commanding tone.

The tri-color-haired woman groaned and turned towards him, removing her hand from her face. "You want to know the truth, huh? Why? So you can go pay back the person that gave me this damn shiner?" She huffed and looked away from him. "I was attacked, that's all you need to know. I did more damage in self-defense than she inflicted on me; it'll be awhile before that bitch will be able to move. No one saw it, no one will report it, and it's been taken care of. Now can we drop it?"

"Who attacked you?" Luna asked, curious.

Kara shrugged. "The hell if I know. She says I should remember her, but I swear I can't remember ever meeting someone that wanted to kill me that badly."

"Wait. She wants to kill you? And you're not worried about that? This is serious, Kara," Akiza remarked.

"You should go to Sector Security," Bruno agreed.

"What good would that do? Those douches never do anything helpful. Besides, I can handle myself just fine. Like I just told you, I left that girl a bigger mess than she could ever have left me in. I'll be fine," Kara growled.

"Yeah, but what if next time she decides not to fight you and just shoots you dead from a distance?" Jack wanted to know.

"Then kudos to her for taking the cowardly approach to ending my life," Kara replied casually. "I seriously doubt she would do that, though. The way she was threatening me kinda pushed that idea into the shitter. She wants the pleasure of ending my life by her own hand, not by a stupid bullet. If she didn't learn not to come after me after what I did to her, then she'll confront me again when she's healed. But not to worry; I took her down once and I can do it again easily."

"Why would anyone want to kill you if you don't know them? It makes no sense," Kahlan put in, pondering the situation.

"She might know Kara from back when Kara wasn't the best person," Luna suggested.

"It's possible," Kara concurred. "I saw a lot of faces back then, and I can hardly remember any of them. Too many people in too little time…Brings to mind the question of who haven't I pissed off in my life of sin."

"Can you describe her? I might be able to look her up on the net," Carly stated, turning on her laptop. "Then we can figure out what you're up against so we can come up with an action plan that doesn't necessarily involve you taking care of her all on your own."

Kara rolled her eyes in irritation. "Whatever. She was about 5'5", had purple hair that wasn't very long, and eyes that looked gold. She had three earrings in one ear and two in the other, and a large x-shaped scar on the right side of her face. She had three more scars on her neck, like some cat or something had slashed her there. I think her lip was pierced, too, but there's not much else about her that really stood out."

Carly started typing something into the computer as the others gathered around to see what she could find. Kara remained where she was, as did Yusei. She knew he wanted to know who was after her now, but he also was waiting for an opportunity to talk to her alone because of this person that was after her. It wouldn't be much longer until he would ask her to step outside with him, and that was a moment she was dreading worse than any surprise attack or a thousand black eyes. She hated letting Yusei, her first friend in years, down by getting in trouble. She also really, really hated being lectured.

"I think I found something," Carly said a few minutes later. "Your attacker has a serious record. She's been linked to a chain of robberies, assaults, and even some murders in New Domino City. There's footage of her everywhere, but it says here she has yet to be convicted or even jailed because Sector Security can't catch her. Even incidents when she's been shot haven't gotten her caught. It's like she just…vanishes."

"That's scary," Leo remarked.

"Can you find anything about her before she started being all evil?" Kahlan asked.

"Give me a sec." The dark-haired woman with weird glasses scrolled a bit before clicking into another site. "According to this, she was in the top of her class at the Duel Academy when she graduated. Straight A's all the way. She had a mother and father and two little brothers and used to live at Tops. But that was six years ago. She started committing crime a year after her graduation. A pretty small gap to be going from good girl to bad girl if you ask me."

"Something must have happened to her to make her change so quickly," Akiza commented. "What's her name?"

"Haruka Izumi," Carly read. She glanced up at Kara. "Does that mean anything to you?"

Recognition flashed through Kara's green eyes. "…Actually, yes. Haruka was the girl I harassed to get money for crack back in the day. And her father, Haru Izumi, was one of my regulars in my 'business' because he and his wife were always having issues. He always shortchanged me, so I had to go after his most vulnerable family member to make up for the difference. I'm surprised I didn't recognize her…Then again, I haven't seen her since she disappeared six years ago." Kara slammed her fist into the wall, oblivious to the pain. "Damn it! No wonder she hates me! After what I did to her and her family, I'm just surprised she hasn't tried to kill me before now!"

"Maybe it took her this long to hunt you down," Jack grumbled.

"You're not helping, Jack," Crow rebuked.

"But you were attacking her for awhile before she disappeared and she was still a good kid. What happened that made her snap?" Luna inquired.

"I'll tell you…what happened. Her father's relations with me and other streetwalkers… ended up with Haruka's parents getting a divorce. Her mother…That poor woman…She didn't deserve that…and neither did her kids. She couldn't take the pain, so she…took her own life. Haruka found her, from what I read in the paper…and that was just before she graduated from the Academy. It didn't help matters that I…I mugged her and stole some of her most prized Duel Monsters cards just before she returned home that day. That just made her day a hell of a lot worse," Kara admitted without meeting anyone's gaze. She didn't deserve to look anyone in the eye ever again.

Many people gasped, but those that knew the most about her remained silent. Kara had a dark past that she would have loved to forget about, but she wasn't that fortunate. In one way or another, it always came back to bite her in the ass. Whether it was in nightmares or in reality, there was no true escape from what she had done. Not even making a new life for herself could undo the past.

Her swollen eye began to sting as tears fell to the floor. "Maybe…Maybe she should be allowed to kill me…"

"Oh, Kara. Please don't say such things," Kahlan pleaded, standing and walking over to her twin's side. She wrapped comforting arms around her sister in a poor attempt to make the poor girl feel better. "That wasn't you back then. That was someone else…Controlled by grief and drugs and self-loathing. You've changed a lot since then; you know you have. You're not responsible for what happened to Haruka."

"You're wrong!" Kara shouted as she shoved her sister away. "I am responsible for everything I did back then! What I did was _my_ decision, no one else's! I could have done something else, something not so depraved and stupid, but I chose to do evil! So don't spew this pitying shit at me! It just makes things worse!"

"She was just trying to help. You don't have to bite her head off," Crow interjected, coming to Kahlan's rescue. "What she was trying to tell you is that Haruka can't hold that against you when she herself has done wrong. Her murdering has broken up families, too. So who is she to judge you when she has blood on her own hands? Besides, you're trying to make up for all the wrong you've done in your life. Can Haruka say the same?"

"You're missing the damn point! If I hadn't pushed her over the edge, Haruka wouldn't have blood on her hands! I made her who she is, and for that, I deserve whatever fate she has planned for me!" Kara snapped.

"Please stop screaming," Luna pleaded, holding her hands over her ears.

Leo would have agreed with his sister, but he was already in the fetal position behind the couch, holding his hands over his ears and saying random nonsense loudly to avoid hearing all this negativity.

"It's been a long day. Perhaps we should go home and sleep on it," Akiza suggested in an attempt to clear the air.

The other guests agreed. Kahlan pecked her boyfriend Crow on the cheek before heading upstairs with the others to get her coat. The look in her violet eyes proved she wasn't likely to get any sleep tonight; she would stay up worrying about her sister as she usually did. But there wasn't anything Crow could do to soothe her, and for that he was regretful.

Kara turned on her heel and headed up the stairs towards her room before any of her male housemates could stop her. She was in no mood to be lectured by Yusei now. She was angry and depressed and tired and sad all at the same time—a very dangerous combo. Her mood almost made her want to call out into the night for Haruka to come and end her pathetic existence. The woman felt she deserved death. Earlier she had wanted to survive Haruka's attack—she even claimed to have a purer heart—but now she regretted that decision.

_What am I going to do with myself now...?_

* * *

><p><em>AN: As I mentioned before, this is a crossover story for Christmas. This chapter had more of **5D's** in it than the original **Yu-Gi-Oh!**, but since the main antagonist starts out in Kara's time, that makes sense. Kinda off to a dark start, but I promise it'll get lighter. Well, what did you think? Please tell me. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day._


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Two reviews for the first chapter, but that's okay. I will not be discouraged! Here is the second chapter. Read on if you want, and thank you for doing so._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 2<span>

Kara didn't sleep at all that night, but luckily for her no one came to bother her in her room the whole time. She assumed Crow and Jack were too tired to try, Bruno didn't want to butt in where he shouldn't, and Yusei hadn't found a good moment to do what the others wouldn't. The thought of her housemates was fleeting throughout the night as misery seized total control over her mind, taunting her with things she had done in the past so she wouldn't hope of ever escaping it. Justice prevailed always in one way or another; with Kara, it would be no different.

The digital clock in her room blinked three twenty-seven in the morning when she finally looked at it again through her one uninjured eye. She was tired of staying in one place, feeling trapped with her emotions and her past like this. The others were all probably deep in sleep without one fleeting thought of their female friend's feelings. It was for the best. She stood and pulled her shoes on again along with her half-jacket. Even if it turned out to be dangerous and Haruka was waiting for her, Kara was going to go for a walk to attempt to take her mind off of things. She needed to think before she faced her friends again, and she did her best thinking on the streets.

How strange that one who had done horrible things on the streets could think so much clearer there…

She shook her head to rid her mind of that thought. There had to be a way to take control of herself back from her miserable past. It would get easier once she got out of this place. She stood and unlocked her door to exit the room. When she opened it, she found Yusei standing outside, looking like he hadn't been asleep all night just as she hadn't. Kara was only half-surprised to see him. Her first friend cared a little too much about her and would give up a night of sleep to make sure she was all right. He also still owed her a lecture for her earlier behavior.

"Where are you going so early?" he asked as she walked past him.

"…Out for a walk," Kara replied hesitantly.

"Would you mind if I joined you?" Yusei wanted to know.

Kara shrugged. "I can't stop you. Do what you want."

Two minutes later, the two teens were walking on the dark streets of New Domino City under the dull illumination of the streetlamps. Anything could be hiding in the shadows around them, even the woman that wanted Kara dead, but Kara didn't care. Her foul mood might have faded, but it was still there enough for her to have a disregard for her own life. She assumed Yusei knew that and that was why he had joined her for her walk despite being exhausted from working on duel runners all day. He was such a good friend, one of many she did not deserve.

She stuffed her hands in her pants pockets as the coldness of winter started bothering her. Even in winter, she did not dress for the season. Her fingerless gloves provided little warmth and her half-jacket gave little protection against the nip in the air. It hadn't mattered so much before—streetwalkers usually had places to go in the night to 'conduct business,' and in the Facility she had never been outside. Old routines on dress code died hard, but a morning of walking in the cold ought to set her straight.

"…Well? Aren't you going to lecture me?" Kara demanded, unnecessarily bitter.

Yusei gave her a sideways glance. "Why would I do that?"

"Because…Because I got in another damn fight yesterday. Because someone could have seen me and it could have caused trouble for us all. Because I got hurt and hurt another. Because I did something that was wrong and now a woman wants my head on a silver platter. I don't know…There are plenty of reasons why you would lecture me. Take your pick," Kara muttered.

"I don't have to lecture you. You are your own person and I can't control you. Besides, anything I might have said you've probably told yourself, only a hundred times ruder," Yusei told her with a small smile that was quickly gone. "…Are you all right, Kara?"

Kara sighed. "…My past's come back to kick me in the ass again. Of course I'm not all right. I did…so much wrong back then…and there's nothing I can do to change that now. When Mirage was stuck in me, I might have been able to go back in the past and stop myself from doing what I did…Things would be so different if that was the case. But… But now that Rex and Roman have laid her to rest, I don't have that option. I can't change the past; I have to live with my mistakes…and it's so damn hard! All the people I hurt, all the people that hurt me…It's suffocating! I can't even close my eyes without remembering something terrible! My past won't leave me alone and I can't do anything to change it! Nothing I can ever do could ever make up for it all, either! What the hell am I supposed to do with myself if I'm just…I'm just…I don't even know what the fuck I am anymore!"

Tears wanted to fall from Kara's eyes again, but she absolutely refused to cry anymore. She bit her tongue to keep them at bay, easy enough to do with her anger at herself being present. Her eyes refused to meet Yusei's even though she could clearly feel his gaze on her like she always could. She didn't deserve to meet anyone's gaze…She wasn't worthy.

She took a ragged breath to calm herself down a little before speaking again. "Yusei, who am I? I used to be a little girl once, a pure-hearted one that could never imagine doing wrong. Then Kahlan 'died' on me because of Roman and my world fell apart. A gang got me addicted to crack…No, _I_ got myself addicted to crack with a gang's help…and I became a member of their group. I killed at least five people to help those bastards, but then they were arrested and I hid to avoid being put in jail. I went back to my family… stole from them to support my addiction…and then I ran from them to avoid being put in rehab. And then I became a prostitute and did my worst wrongs while having my worst wrongs done to me. I started changing after Jack degraded me the first time by kicking my crack addiction and ending my work as a whore…I even became an advocate for equal rights in the Satellite…But under all that…under all this…I'm still the same person that committed those crimes. I am a thief, a whore, and a murderer…That's all I'll ever be. No matter how hard I try to get away from it or how hard I try to change, I'll always be who I was back then. I'll always be the person who stole Haruka's father from her mother and beat her up and stole from her and then made her mother hurt so much that she killed herself. Haruka knew I would never change even before I did. If I was in her place, I'd want me dead, too."

"Kara, we all do things we regret and most of us never have the option to go back and change that. No one is perfect enough to never do a single thing wrong. We can't change who we were back then, you're right about that. However, we can change who we are now. For some of us, it takes a lot longer and we have to work harder to become a better person, but it's always possible. You just have to believe in yourself and never give up. It's a lot easier said than done. We can never forget what we've done or completely make up for it, but we can sure as hell try, and trying is better than nothing," Yusei stated.

"…You make it sound so simple, but it's not," Kara grumbled.

"You're right—it's not simple. But difficult or not, Kara, you have changed. I may not have known you before we met in the Facility, but even I can see how different you are compared to back then. You used to give everyone the cold shoulder and not trust anyone or do anything for anyone ever. You thought everyone in the world wanted to hurt you, so you blocked everyone out. You even hated yourself more than you do now because of what you did, but never attempted to do anything to change yourself or make up for your wrongs. That attitude stuck around for awhile after we broke out of the Facility, but slowly you changed into the kind woman you are now. You can only get better if you keep trying," Yusei told her.

Kara stopped in her tracks, overcome by a mixture of emotions that were mostly negative, feeling as though she couldn't go on anymore. Yusei stopped as well and turned to look at her in the face, concerned. The tears she had been trying to hold back were streaming from her eyes, stinging her bruised one painfully, and she felt ashamed for crying so much in front of her first friend. She punched the wall of the building beside her in frustration; it only served to hurt her hand. Her back against the wall now, she slid down into the seated position, heedless of the cold snow that had settled there because she was in so much mental and emotional pain. She wouldn't even look up at Yusei anymore. Despite this, he barely hesitated to kneel beside her and put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"…I'm weak, Yusei…I've always been so weak…," Kara sobbed without looking up. "As time goes on, I feel…like I'm only getting weaker. My past…It makes my present so unbearable…I don't know how to deal with the pain…of my decisions. Just when…Just when I think I've gotten the hang of it, something…something always pops up to…to prove me wrong. Jack, Roman, Kahlan, my former gang…And now Haruka? I can't ever catch a damn break…How can I ever overcome this?"

Yusei wasn't sure. He had never been in a predicament like hers because he had done very little he regretted and nothing as terrible as half the things she had done in her life. But he did have a friend who had once been where she was now that had managed to recover under some pretty demanding circumstances. Perhaps he could reach out to that friend to ask his advice, or even have him come down to help Kara. After all, those two had gotten along when they met back in Satisfaction Town. If anyone could help Kara, it would be _him_.

"We'll find a way together," Yusei promised. "Now let's get you back home. If we stay out much later and Crow finds out, he'll develop some conspiracy theory about us again and then we'd never hear the end of it. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to try and get some sleep before everyone's on your case again."

Kara sniffed and quickly wiped her tears away with the back of her head, wincing as she roughly rubbed her black eye. "…Okay…But I don't wanna be alone tonight. I…I don't trust myself anymore. Can I…Can I possibly…No. It sounds silly. Forget about it."

"Just ask it, Kara," Yusei pressed.

The tough girl actually blushed, something she rarely ever did. "…Kami, this is embarrassing! To cry in front of you and have an emotional breakdown…and then to ask this of you…Damn, it's awkward!"

Yusei couldn't help but chuckle at her sudden behavior. "Come on, Kara. It can't be that bad. And I won't judge you for it. Friends don't judge friends, you know."

"If you say so," Kara murmured, still pink in the face. "…Can I sleep in bed with you tonight?" She saw the look Yusei got on his face—she was not the only one blushing anymore—and felt even sillier. "See? I told you it sounded silly! And now you're judging me even though you said you wouldn't!"

"I am not judging you!" Yusei insisted. "I'm just…wondering what the guys would say if they saw me coming out of your room in the morning, or if they saw you leaving my room. That's bound to start rumors and teasing, and I know how much you hate it when Crow and Jack say things about us being together when we're just friends. I don't want you more upset than you already are."

"Personally, I don't care what those two think about us anymore. They're the ones tied down by a significant other and they're just jealous of us cuz we're still ridin' solo. They just say those things to put the idea in the back of our minds because they don't want us to be single when they're not. We can ignore them if we want, and it won't upset me," Kara assured him. A small smile worked its way onto her face and she let out a light laugh. "I say that now, but come their first snide remark, I'll be pounding their faces in. That's how it always is, isn't it?"

Yusei smiled. "Yeah." He held out his hand to her, which she took, and helped her to stand. "But that's just what makes you who you are, and that's something I wouldn't change for the world. So who cares what those losers say about us? The only real, really weird question I have to ask is…Your bed or mine?"

Kara laughed. "Well, since I have my own room while you have to board with a pushy Jack Atlas…I think mine would be best. We'd have less a chance of getting caught and judged that way." She blushed and giggled like a school girl before adding," Now let's go get in bed together, Yusei Fudo."

Yusei flustered again. "…Did you have to put it that way?"

"Yes. Yes I did," was Kara's reply.

* * *

><p>Carrie awoke in her bed, physically alone, several hours later, feeling sick in her stomach in a way that she had not felt before. Her spiritual boyfriend was concerned, but she had little time to address him before she had to run to the bathroom and vomit. No one else was upstairs—it was ten in the morning, after all, and she had slept in because of staying out late to help Grandpa—so no one heard her getting sick save herself and Yami. She found this to be strange; she had never gotten sick in the morning unless she caught some sort of bug, and she usually had warning signs before the vomiting that she had caught something. She watched the water and half-digested food go down, wondering about the motive behind her sudden illness.<p>

"I shall return in a moment," Yami said suddenly, disappearing into the Puzzle.

"What are you doing?" Carrie asked out loud, not caring if it sounded like she was talking to herself because no one was around to hear her.

_**I am going to speak with Mystical Elf to see if she can tell what is wrong with you, **_Yami replied from his place in the Puzzle.

"I'm probably just sick and didn't realize it cuz I was busy helping Grandpa last night. It's probably nothing," Carrie remarked casually as she washed her face and hands to get rid of any nastiness that remained.

_**It is better to be safe than sorry**_.

Carrie groaned. "You worry too much for a dead guy, you know that? If I'm not worried about what's wrong with me, you shouldn't be worried. It's my body, you know. Why are you more concerned about it than me?"

_**Because I love you and I do not want to chance anything bad happening to you even if you think you are fine.**_

The blonde smiled. "All right, whatever. If that's how you feel, and since you put it that way, who am I to stop you? And while you're doing that, I think I'm going to hit the showers. I oddly feel very dirty all of a sudden…"

She walked back across the hall to get clothes to change into for the day. If she was indeed sick, she wanted to be as comfortable as possible while hanging her head over the porcelain throne or curled up in the fetal position on the couch. A black tank and a pair of gray sweats would do, and she could tie her hair back with a band to keep it from getting in the way. She grabbed these and undergarments, as well as her black fluffy slippers, and went back into the bathroom. No one downstairs knew she was up even now. That would change once she started her shower—the water moving through the pipes would give it away to anyone in the house with working ears.

Carrie left the Millennium Puzzle on the counter—there was no need to wear it while she was in the shower. It wouldn't be a long time apart since her showers weren't very long, but separation really hurt after all they had been through since they had met. Any time apart felt like forever, and sometimes it could be forever if they weren't careful.

She hurried out of her nightclothes and into the shower, glad to feel the warm water on her after having been sick. The warmth made her feel better, if even just a little, and helped to get rid of any germs or dirt or anything unclean on her. Cleansing was very comforting, but more so when she felt under the weather. But she didn't want to stay in there any longer than she had to, so five minutes after getting in, she was out again with a towel wrapped around her mid-section and water dripping onto the floor from her wet person.

The first thing she put on was the Puzzle despite being naked. She and Yami had seen each other undressed before in intimacy, so privacy held little authority in their relationship anymore. Beyond that fact, Carrie also wanted to know if Mystical Elf had provided any useful information about her condition yet. She knew she was sick, of course, but it'd be nice to know what ailed her so she could treat it accordingly. She waited patiently for Yami to return as she dressed, not too worried about what he would say when she saw him again.

His ghostly form appeared beside her as she was slipping on her tank top over her head, a task made more difficult by the presence of the Millennium Puzzle. She pulled it through the opening for her head before pulling her head through, so it took her a moment to realize that Yami was there. She smiled a sweet, welcoming smile in greeting.

"So what'd she say is wrong with me?" Carrie asked without noticing Yami's expression, sliding on her sweats.

"…There's nothing wrong with you where illness is concerned," Yami replied.

Carrie cocked an eyebrow in surprise while pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "How can that be? I just threw up. There has to be some sort of bacteria or virus or germ that made me do that. I mean, I didn't stick my fingers down my throat, and people don't just get sick for no reason. Mystical Elf must have been mistaken or she has a screw loose."

"You didn't get sick for no reason, Carrie, and Mystical Elf was not mistaken," Yami stated. He made Carrie look at him and see how serious he was about this. "Carrie, she said you're pregnant with my child. That's why you got sick. You're pregnant and suffering from morning sickness. That's what's wrong with you."

The blonde blinked. "Say what?"

"You're pregnant," Yami repeated.

"But…But how is that even possible? You're a spirit, not a living person in the flesh," Carrie pointed out, now frantic and trying to come to grips with this. "We…We didn't think it was possible for you to get me knocked up. All logic says it isn't. It isn't! Mystical Elf must be wrong. I bet that blue chick's just messing with us to see how we'd react. Go check it with another Duel Monster, like Gyakutenno Megami. She wouldn't pull that kind of trick on us. Go ask her."

"I did. She confirmed what Mystical Elf said, as did the other Duel Monsters I asked. That's part of the reason why I took so long to come back," Yami told her despite having only been gone for about ten minutes. "Against all logic, against all the odds, you have conceived my child…Our son. You must accept it."

Carrie shook her head. "I have to see the proof of this myself." She ducked around him and opened the doors on the counter that had the sink above it, looking for the box Mai kept handy in case something like this happened to her. She found it and pulled out one of the sticks that would turn blue if she was indeed pregnant. Hesitantly, she took the stick out of its packaging.

"What are you doing?" Yami asked.

"This is a pregnancy test," Carrie explained. "It tells girls if they're with child or not, and it's ninety-nine percent accurate. And before you ask, it knows by finding things in your body that aren't there unless you're pregnant. And it finds those things in your urine when you urinate on it. In other words, I'm going to pee on this thing, and within ten minutes we'll know for sure if I really am carrying your son. So don't look at me."

Yami averted his gaze from Carrie as she went about her business. "Why can't you just take the word of the Duel Monsters?"

"Because I have to see for myself if it's true before I'll believe it," Carrie replied.

She slammed the pregnancy test onto the counter seconds later and washed her hands for the second time in half an hour. She was upset for some reason that she didn't understand—shouldn't she be happy to be carrying the son of man she loved with all of her heart? All logic pointed towards yes, but then again logic had pointed to her not being able to get pregnant by a ghost. Maybe it was because this had caught her offguard that she was upset. After all, she wasn't expecting this and usually the unexpected made her angry simply because she liked to be prepared for everything. She hadn't been prepared for this in the slightest. Hell, she had been more prepared for the zombie apocalypse than this, and zombies weren't even really real.

**You are a strange mortal, **Mirage commented from her prison in Carrie's mind. **If I were you, I wouldn't be so stressed. I would rejoice to have a child in my womb, especially the child of the Pharaoh or Thief Bakura. So what if you were not expecting it? It has happened. Get over yourself and be happy already.**

_I still don't have the proof I need, so don't you tell me what to do,_ Carrie snapped as she began pacing around the bathroom.

**You don't have to snap at me just because your hormones are out of whack due to your pregnancy! Sheesh!**

"Don't pay her any heed. She's just being annoying to get some attention," Yami said suddenly before Carrie could go off on her darker side. "Just calm down, please. Everything is going to be fine. This isn't the end of the world. For someone, it is only the beginning."

Carrie sighed and sat down on the edge of the tub where Yami joined her. "…You're right. I have nothing to worry about. I'm over the age of eighteen, I'm not in school anymore…A child can't ruin my life. If I am pregnant, it won't be the end of the world for anyone." A small smile managed to work its way onto Carrie's face. "Well, what a wonderful Christmas present this is. It's a bit early, but I don't think anything my friends get me could top this."

"I wouldn't say it's a Christmas present. Mystical Elf told me it's been about two months since you've conceived," Yami admitted.

This made both the spirit and the woman blush as they remembered something that happened two months ago. It had been Halloween, which coincidentally had also been Carrie's cousin Alyssa's birthday. Yugi had dressed like the Phantom of the Opera this year, and since Yugi and Yami wore the same thing, Yami had also been the Phantom, only hotter. Carrie had dressed like a whorish devil. After the party, they had gone up to Carrie's bedroom, and…

"I knew I should have told Yugi to wear a condom to bed that night so you'd have a rubber on," Carrie muttered, referring to the fact that Yami always wore whatever Yugi wore, face-palming.

"Don't blame me for this. It was your idea to do it," Yami reminded her.

"I'm not blaming you. It takes two to tango, you know," Carrie remarked.

A knock came at the bathroom door, putting an end to their conversation. "Carrie? Are you okay in there? You've been in the bathroom for quite some time now. You feeling all right, or are you under the weather?"

The voice belonged to Mai, but by looking at the shadows under the door Carrie could see she wasn't alone. Jessica, Mako, and Serenity were probably with her. How much of her conversation had they heard? They wouldn't have heard anything Yami said because they weren't wearing the Millennium Puzzle, but from her end they could have gleaned any number of things.

"I'm not too hot, Mai, but I'll be fine," Carrie said. "…You guys can come in if you want. The door's unlocked. Just don't look at my unmentionables in the laundry basket."

The doorknob turned and the door moved forward to allow the people on the other side entrance into the bathroom. Three pretty females and one well-muscled male made their way in, leaving the door open since there was no reason for it to be otherwise. They noticed Carrie was wearing sweats and a tank, something she only wore when she felt sick. Mai opened her mouth to offer to make her soup when Jessica noticed the pregnancy test on the counter and cut her off.

"What's this about?" Carrie's little sister demanded, picking the stick up on the end that Carrie hadn't peed on and thrusting it in her direction.

"Uh…It's nothing," Carrie lied, embarrassed. This was not how she would have liked her housemates to find out about her pregnancy.

"Nothing? Nothing? It's a pregnancy test that's been peed on! The only reason that would happen is if you thought you were pregnant and were checking!" Jessica exclaimed. She looked at the stick and her pink eyes widened. "Holy shit! It's blue! You're pregnant! You're really pregnant!"

The others just stood there in shock.

"…How…How is that even possible?" Mako asked.

"Well, when a man and a woman really love each other, they get in bed and then a stork puts a baby in the woman's womb," Serenity recalled, though it was the version her mother had told her when she had asked about the birds and the bees. "It must have happened with her and Yami."

"There aren't any storks, Serenity. How many times do I have to tell you that's not how it happens?" Jessica sighed, exasperated as she threw her sister's pregnancy test away.

Serenity crossed her arms and pouted. "I like my version better. It's clean and doesn't bring sex into it. Sex is such a dirty word and an even dirtier activity."

"Anyway…," Mai interjected with a sweat-drop. "…I don't understand how it's possible for you to have gotten pregnant by a spirit. His genitalia wouldn't work properly and spirits don't have sperm. It just doesn't add up or make even the slightest bit of sense. Is there possibly another explanation for this? Could you have slept with someone else?"

The look Carrie gave Mai was enough of an answer.

"Maybe we just don't know how the world works as well as we thought we did," Mako suggested. "Maybe God knew Carrie would never love another as much as she loves Yami and decided to help them have a family together. Let's not question how it was possible. Let's just accept that it has and be happy for our friends."

"Thanks, Mako," Carrie murmured with a smile.

"I'm gonna be an aunt! I'm gonna have a niece!" Jessica cried in happiness.

"It's a boy," Carrie put in.

"I'm gonna have a nephew!" Jessica cried, jumping up and down. "I can't wait to tell Mokey about this! This is the greatest news anyone has had around Christmas about a child since Jesus Christ was born! The world must be informed!"

Carrie sweat-dropped. "I don't think the world needs to be informed about me being pregnant by a spirit. They might think I'm crazy if you said that. But you can tell our friends if you'd like. I believe they can keep it a secret from the press."

Mai hugged her friend tightly in her joy. "I'm so happy for you and Yami."

"I'm happy for us, too," Carrie said, and now it was true. "I just hope nothing bad happens to us now."

**Famous last words.**

* * *

><p><em>AN: Kara and Yusei had their little heart-to-heart and went to bed together just to sleep, and Carrie finds out she's going to be a mother to a son who is Kara's grandfather. It seems like nothing can go wrong. But as Mirage said at the end, those are famous last words. What did you think of this chapter? Please tell me. Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day!_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: All right. After reading a certain review from someone, I feel that I must explain things a little bit more than I have, especially regarding Carrie's pregnancy. In the storyline for **Strength Within**, Carrie and Yugi are indeed Kara's great-grandparents. However, that timeline is in regards my original storyline for Carrie that was never written, the one where Yugi had the Puzzle and Carrie ends up paired with Yugi. In **Her Pain, His Heart**, this is not the case because Carrie solved the Puzzle and fell for the Pharaoh. Thus being the case and considering this is a crossover between **Strength Within **and **Her Pain, His Heart**, Carrie would have never slept with anyone but Yami, thus making him the only person by whom she could be impregnated. This would make Yami the one who is Kara's great-grandfather instead of Yugi, and therefore the father of her grandfather._

_Now that that's out of the way, let's return to our story._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 3<span>

The house that Carrie lived in quickly became full of friends as word spread from Jessica about the blonde's pregnancy. Everyone wanted to go out of their way to congratulate her and Yami on the life inside of her, even though it was only two months old and their son's creation could not logically be explained. Her once-peaceful day was thrown up into the air by this strange event and there was little chance she would ever get a moment alone. It made her a bit uncomfortable, but who was she to send her friends away? Her Guardians, the mummies that had been protecting her since she was her first life Iris, even stopped by with the Ishtars to give her their best wishes and they hardly got out anymore unless their mistress was in danger.

"You'd better name him after me. I'm your best cousin," Alyssa, who had also come to the house when she heard the news, said pointedly as she sat down beside her blonde cousin with a mug of hot chocolate in her hand. "I don't care if it's a boy. Find a way to name it after me."

"Why should she do that? It's not your kid. You can't tell her what to do with it," Joey muttered from across the living room.

"I can so! It's part of our unspoken agreement when it comes to children! I name my firstborn after her and she names her firstborn after me! That's how it works, so butt out of it!" Alyssa claimed.

"…I don't recall agreeing to that. I don't really want my kid being named Alyssa or Michelle or any masculine form of those names. And I also don't expect you to name your kids Carrie or Alyson or any masculine forms of those names," Carrie put in, looking down at her mug of hot chocolate instead of making eye contact with anyone. "I'm not even sure what kind of name to give my son. I kinda just found out I was pregnant this morning. Nothing's planned since it's so early."

"If you need any help, any at all, we're all here for you," Tea stated with a warm smile.

"Yeah. We know how to take care of kids from helping out Joey when he was taking care of the Matron-Watchers' kids. True, your son isn't going to be an adult in two months' time, but it can't be that much harder," Tristan agreed.

"Oh, really? And how many kids have you had?" Mai countered. She put her mug down on the table with a sigh. "Look, none of us can really be giving Carrie advice on children because none of us have any. She's the first one of us to be expecting. So why don't we stop telling her what she should do and start thinking of ways to help her? There's gonna be a lot of work associated with this pregnancy, and soon she won't be able to do much unless she wants to hurt herself and her son. We might as well start here and learn from this before any of us decide to get knocked up."

"What can we possibly do to help my knocked-up sister?" Jessica wanted to know.

"Well, for starters, you and Serenity could get jobs so she could quit hers. She doesn't need the stress, and knowing Kaiba he probably won't let a pregnant lady work for him due to her limitations. It'll teach you two the responsibility you've been lacking and make you understand how hard it really is out there in the real world, especially you, Jessica," Mako remarked, picking up where Mai had left off. "Then there's the matter of her chores. Carrie won't be able to lift much later on in her pregnancy. The four of us can rotate on who does which of her chores so she can take it easy. It seems fair enough with all the kind things she's done for us in her life."

"Thanks, but I don't need-" Carrie began, but she was cut off by someone else speaking.

"She goes to the game shop to help Grandpa out every now and then. I could do that in her absence so she doesn't feel like she's letting 'em down by being pregnant," Joey suggested. "I'm sure the others would be willing to help me out there."

"You bet," Yugi, Tristan, Tea, Duke, and Ryo concurred.

"I'm not helpless," Carrie pointed out, but she went unheard.

"I can do her shopping. You know, for healthy food for her and the baby and maternity clothes and stuff like that. I'm awesome like that…Even if our unspoken agreement isn't gonna be fulfilled and she's not gonna name her son after me," Alyssa grumbled.

"I'll help get the nursery ready in her room," Mokuba volunteered.

"We'll help in any way we can," Ishizu told them, speaking for her siblings as well.

As people continued to say what they would do to help Carrie out during her pregnancy, Carrie left her mug on the table and snuck away from the crowd and headed back upstairs to her room without being seen. Her friends were just trying to be nice, but they were really starting to irritate her. Just because she was with child, they thought she couldn't do anything for herself. They were all offering to give her special treatment and wouldn't listen to her when she tried to turn them down. None of those people down there knew what it was like to raise a human child, but it didn't stop them from putting their two-cents in about what Carrie shouldn't do while pregnant.

She quietly closed and locked her door before collapsing face-first onto her bed, groaning over her friends' behavior. Why did Jessica have to invite them all over today? Carrie had just found out about her condition and couldn't tell them anything about it because she didn't know very much herself. It had been a bad idea to let her little sister go crazy about this. All it had resulted in was Carrie getting annoyed. She just hoped her friends would understand why she had left and leave her alone.

A gentle knocking came at her door, putting that thought to rest almost immediately. Carrie groaned loudly as she rolled onto her back. "What do you want?"

"Mistress Carrie, it's Ja-Kal. I'm the only one out here. I…I wish to speak to you if that is all right," the person on the other side of the door said quietly to avoid being heard by anyone but her.

Hearing him speak reminded Carrie of something she had forgotten since she met the leader of the Guardians. He had had a son before when he was alive. She had been wrong before in her claims of her friends. There was one person who knew about raising children, and that person had come to talk to her. Maybe things weren't that hopeless after all. She made her way to the door again and unlocked it just long enough to let the once-dead guy into her room.

"Thank you for allowing me in here, Carrie. I understand that you are a bit annoyed at the moment, but I had to speak with you and the Pharaoh. Unlike the others, I know what it's like to be where you are now. It may have been five thousand years ago, but it doesn't feel like it was that long ago that my wife told me she was with child," Ja-Kal told her.

"Yeah…I kinda forgot that you had a kid until just now," Carrie admitted as she sat on her bed and beckoned him to join her. "That information kinda got misplaced in my brain. And you're right, I am annoyed. My friends think me helpless just cuz I've got life inside me. Heh! Fat chance! No kid's gonna hold me down. Not now and not when it's born. I'll still be able to do everything I've done before. Why can't they see that? They've never had a baby, so what do they know? They shouldn't be trying to limit me. I can do everything just fine. I don't need any help."

Ja-Kal gave her a wan smile. "You can't do everything…Especially not throughout your whole pregnancy. The more the child develops, the less you can do. It's for your own safety as well as that of your son. There will be limitations, Carrie, that you won't be able to get around. Not as many as your friends assume, of course, but they will still be there. It's just a fact that you're going to have to accept." He chuckled. "But if you're anything like my wife, you won't let it hold you down until you have no other choice. No matter how much I pleaded for her to take it easy, she never did. The first five months of her pregnancy, she went about life as she had always done. My dear Tia…She was so stubborn and didn't want to seem helpless. In a lot of ways, you and her are very similar. You never want to look helpless even when you should be taking it easy. But she knew when to slow down and I hope you'll realize it as well."

"I wasn't going to go crazy, Ja-Kal. I know there are things I can't do when this pregnancy kicks into gear and I'm willing to accept that when the time comes. I wouldn't put my life and the life of my son in danger to prove any points," Carrie assured him. "It's just…They're making it seem like I shouldn't be doing anything right off the bat. They think that just because I'm pregnant I can't do anything, that I should just sleep and eat and do nothing until my son is born. Do you know how boring that would be? God, I'd go crazy within a week if I was forced to live like that! I want them to know that I can still live a normal life while pregnant, but they won't listen to me. Why does everyone think they know what's best when someone they know gets knocked up? It's just not right at all."

"That's how it's always been. Even in my time of life, people were like that. You wouldn't believe half the things people told Tia she should do while carrying our son. It was ridiculous." Ja-Kal shook his head at the memory. "It does calm down over time, so you shouldn't have to deal with this for too long. Just ignore them and do what you think is best for you and your son. You're the only one who knows since it's your body. Don't let anyone else make you think otherwise."

"Thanks, Ja-Kal. I'll remember that," Carrie said.

"You're very welcome, Mistress," Ja-Kal murmured as he stood again. "I'll leave you alone now and try to calm down the masses. When I left them, they were planning your baby shower in detail. Tia never had one of those, but I believe it's the expecting mother's job to plan it, not the expecting mother's friends. I'll also make it clear that you do not wish to be bothered about your pregnancy anymore, and if anyone does they will have to answer to me."

"Sounds good to me. Thank you again, Ja-Kal." The blonde stood and hugged him tightly to express how grateful she truly was for his advice and what he was doing for her.

Ja-Kal smiled and returned her gesture. "You're welcome, Carrie. Anything to make your life a little easier."

* * *

><p>Kara slept well that morning with Yusei in her bed, having no dreams at all to haunt her and remind her of the bad person she had once been. She remained still and silent throughout the dark hours; it wouldn't have been the case if she had not been lying in her best friend's arms because then her negativity and past would have made her toss and turn restlessly if she even managed to get to sleep at all. But all bad things could not make it to her heart as long as her body was against his with his warmth keeping away the cold. He was her shield, and he had protected her once again even though she probably didn't deserve it.<p>

This was not the first time she and he had been in this bed together nor would it be the last. There were often times in Kara's life when her past would come barreling down on her full force and she would need the strength of another to get her through the night alive. Bad blood lay between her and Jack due to several reasons—like her not sleeping with him during her prostitute days and then beating him up in front of the world in a tournament when he refused to duel her—that prevented her from seeking that strength from him. Crow was okay, but their friendship wasn't strong enough. Bruno was a newbie and she didn't exactly trust new faces though she got along with the guy well enough. Yusei was different. They had been friends for a lot longer—he understood her better than any other person alive. She trusted him completely, and thus was why he was the only one from who she could draw her strength when she was weak. Their bonds were stronger than any other.

However, Kara could not say that she loved Yusei, though he made it a little obvious that he had some feelings for her that exceeded friendship. Having been hurt by those she said she loved before and having experienced so much pain in her life, she was reluctant to open her heart to anyone, even the man she trusted completely. If they were to ever be together, it would take some time for their relationship to come to fruition.

Only once had they spent the night in that bed without just sleeping, but that was a time both of them had agreed to forget unless they wanted to hurt.

It was just after noon when Kara finally stirred in the arms of her best friend. Her one good green eye opened slowly; she didn't want to wake up to face the world just yet. But her body gave her no choice. Yusei was not yet awake—he had come to her room ten minutes after she settled in and fell asleep much later—and she didn't want disturb him just because she couldn't sleep anymore. She remained as still as she could and settled for watching the rise and fall of his chest with every breath he took. Watching him sleep made her drowsy and…a bit flustered as her eyes drifted away from his chest to the muscles of his exposed arms. He didn't sleep with his jacket or his gloves on—what sane person would?—and so she could easily trace the lines of his muscles with her eyes. That flustered feeling became stronger, but why was she suddenly feeling this way? Why was her heart starting to race as she looked at her best friend's handsome, peaceful face? Could it be that she-?

_No! Not again, you don't! _Kara mentally snapped at herself, forcing herself to look away from Yusei altogether. _You don't love him! And you don't want to hurt him again! Get that thought out of your damn mind, Kara! You and Yusei are just gonna be friends, and that's it! It's for the best! So don't you even dare start getting mushy, shitty thoughts in your head about him! You'll only end up hurting yourself and him like you did that one night when you slipped up!_

She turned her attention to the commotion that was starting outside her room.

"It's already after noon and Kara's still in bed! Not only that, but Yusei's gone! How the hell are we supposed to get anything done with those two being lazy bums?" Jack exclaimed and Kara could picture him slamming his fists down on something in frustration at not having things go his way.

"Don't worry about it. I can cook just as well as Kara so you won't starve and I'm just as good with technology as Yusei so we can continue our work. Whatever those two are up to, let them be. They deserve a day of rest, what with Yusei working nonstop to improve our runners and Kara being…Well, Kara. And she still needs to recover from everything that happened yesterday. We should be glad to have her sleeping in. The less she's aware of, the better she'll be when she comes to," Bruno pointed out.

"Yeah, but I promised Kay that'd I check on her to make sure she's still alive. I can't exactly do that if her door's locked, and the only thing that's keeping me from breaking it down is Yusei's absence," Crow muttered.

"How is Yusei's absence holding you back?" Jack wanted to know.

"Yusei is in this house. If he wasn't here, his runner would be gone. So, since he's here but we haven't seen him, that can only mean one thing. He's in Kara's room with her. Chances are they just slept in the same bed cuz Kara didn't want to be alone…But I don't wanna risk barging in on them when they're indecent," Crow replied, causing Kara to turn a little red in embarrassment and anger. It didn't really matter—he couldn't see her and didn't even know she could hear him—but it still kinda irked her to know that Crow thought she and Yusei might end up together when she didn't love him.

"Wait. Are you suggesting they might have…again?" Bruno asked.

Kara assumed that Crow shrugged. "It's happened once before, and although Kara swore she would never let it happen again cuz she doesn't want to hurt Yusei…Anything's possible. I mean, you saw how she was last night. She looked like she wanted to die, which completely freaked Kahlan out. Imagine what it might have done to Yusei. He obviously has feelings for her beyond friendship. Wouldn't he do everything in his power to keep her from pursuing death, even risk getting hurt again? And wouldn't Kara want to let him do anything?"

"Shut up, Crow! You don't know anything about Kara!" Jack snapped, cutting off his orange-haired friend before he could continue. "She cares too damn much to put Yusei through that again! No matter how torn up she gets or how much pain she's in, she'll never take advantage of him again! She swore she wouldn't, and if you were really her friend you wouldn't doubt her for a second! So stop coming up with these terrible conspiracy theories about what Kara and Yusei did last night and just shut the hell up already!"

"Fine. I'll drop it. But if they come out of that room looking like hell, don't say I didn't warn you," Crow grumbled.

The commotion ended right there and the house was silent again, but the damage had been done. No one was supposed to speak about that night anymore. Everyone had agreed it had been a mistake and they should let it go. And yet, her good friend Crow hadn't let himself forget what Kara had done to Yusei in that one night she slipped up. He believed the same thing could easily happen again. Was it possible that he was right? Did she have the darkness within herself to take advantage of Yusei again, to twist his heart in her hands and bruise it once more? It had taken so much to get their friendship back to the way it was…If such a thing happened again, there would be no recovering it.

_I can't hurt Yusei like that. Never again,_ Kara thought without realizing that she was trembling with fear of what she was capable of. _But...But how can I stop myself when I have this darkness in my heart? How can I...control myself?_

"…Kara? What's wrong…?" Yusei's kinda groggy voice asked as the man came awake from a combination of the yelling and feeling her trembling in his arms.

She feigned a perfect smile for him. "Nothing. I'm fine, Yusei. You don't need to worry about me anymore. But it's after noon, so we should probably get up before the guys start freaking out and try breaking down the door."

The tri-color-haired girl pulled out of his arms and stood up, gathering her half-jacket and gloves to cover the scars on her arms and upper body once again. With her back turned to Yusei, she let that smile fade, still afraid that what Crow assumed of her would come to pass. She didn't want to hurt her best friend ever again. The best thing for her to do would be to keep her distance, but that was impossible. Yusei would always come after her because he cared too much about her. And with Haruka after her, the chances of her getting away from him were slim to none.

She didn't wait for Yusei before leaving her bedroom, hating herself for seeming so heartless in that one action but unable to act otherwise. The conversation that had popped up amongst the three men dissipated as soon as she stepped into the kitchen and dining area, and she knew immediately what was going through their minds. She locked eyes with Crow and he didn't look away. Rather, he met her hard green gaze with his untrusting gray one easily. It was almost as if he knew she had heard every word he had said to the others. It was like he wanted her to hear him doubt her control. His gaze only shifted away when Yusei appeared behind her.

"Morning, guys," Bruno greeted awkwardly.

"Morning? It's almost one in the afternoon," Jack muttered. Despite his complaining about the time, he was still sipping coffee and not dressed for the day. It seemed that even he hadn't been up that long.

"Well, no matter. Would you like me to whip you up some breakfast, or maybe lunch? You may have slept great, but you still gotta eat," Bruno remarked.

Kara looked at Crow again only to find him already looking at her. "…No, thanks. I'm not hungry. But you go ahead and eat. I'm gonna hit the showers."

She turned and headed back towards her room, feeling Crow's piercing gaze on her the whole time and knowing that she deserved it.

Jack glared at the orange-haired man in displeasure. "See what you did now, you dolt? She heard what you were saying about her and now she's in a foul mood again after Yusei managed to get her out of it! Don't you give a damn about her and how she feels? She's your friend too, you know, but you easily tread over her wherever Yusei's concerned!"

"…Excuse me? Did I…miss something?" Yusei was completely lost.

"I do care about Kara and I do consider her my friend! I just don't trust her alone with Yusei! I haven't ever since she took his heart and stomped on it in front of his face!" Crow exclaimed, cluing Yusei in a little more.

"Hey, I thought we agreed to forget about that," Bruno put in.

"Shut up, Bruno!" Jack and Crow shouted in unison.

"Yusei's a grown man! What he decides to let happen to him is his choice and you have absolutely no say in it! And Kara might have been the kind of person to easily do that to a man once, but she's no longer that sort of woman! Don't you remember how torn apart she was when she hurt him then? She's changed, and you need to let shit go before it destroys her!" Jack growled, getting in Crow's face.

"I don't care what you say about them! Yusei doesn't think straight when he gets alone with her, and whenever she feels vulnerable she's always running into his arms and messing with his head! She might not want to hurt him or mean to hurt him, but she's gonna do it regardless if they're not careful! All I want is for her to get her head on straight and decide if she wants a relationship with our friend before she screws him up again! I can't stand to see Yusei hurt, especially not by her, and I won't stand by and let it happen as long as I have breath in me!" Crow countered, getting in Jack's face.

"All right, I've heard enough out of both of you," Yusei said suddenly, forcing the angry boys apart despite not being happy himself. "Let me make this clear right now before you end up in another fight about things that don't concern you. Kara and I are just friends, and I don't expect for us to become anything more. That one night, which we all swore we'd never talk about again, was a mistake that happened when we were both out of our heads. We're past that now and nothing like it is ever going to happen again. Now Crow, you need to stop doubting Kara. She's a noble woman that won't hurt me; if I believe that, then so should you. Right now, she doesn't need your negativity. Someone from her past is after her and she's more vulnerable than ever. If you're really her friend, you'll help her instead of talking trash. Is everything clear to you now?"

Crow huffed and crossed his arms. "Crystal."

"Good. Now, I've asked a favor of someone who has been in a position similar to Kara's. He should be here soon, so be prepared," Yusei told them. "I'm going to hit the showers after Kara's out. While I'm gone, you'd better not start arguing again. We don't have the time or the patience to deal with this crap right now."

"Yeah, yeah. I won't talk about your wish-to-be-girlfriend," Crow mumbled as Yusei disappeared again.

"You know, if Kahlan heard you talking about her sister like you have been, she'd probably kick you so hard in the groin that you might not be able to have kids," Bruno pointed out as he kindly made breakfast for Yusei even though the guy hadn't asked. "You should really take Yusei and Jack's advice and cool it. Your bitter feelings towards Kara won't get you anywhere."

"…Yeah, I know. I'm just looking out for Yusei. After all, he's been my friend just as long as Jack has. I'd do the same thing for Jack if I thought Carly might be mistreating him in a heartbeat. I don't like seeing my friends get hurt by people they deeply care about." Crow sighed. "And I'm afraid that Kara might never stop hurting Yusei. That's the only reason I doubt her."

Jack sighed. "Look, Crow. I can see where you're coming from, really. But I've known Kara a little bit longer than you have and I know the kind of woman she is. She won't take advantage of Yusei's feelings. No matter how vulnerable she gets, she'll keep control of herself even if it means separating herself from us all. Not even now, when a woman from her past is trying to kill her, will she allow herself to slip up. I trust her to be strong just as Yusei does, and you'd be wise to do the same."

"All right…I'll try to have a little faith in her. Just stop lecturing me already," Crow muttered. "…Who do you think Yusei called to come help her? He said it was someone who's been where Kara is now, but I don't think I know anyone like that. Do you think it might be someone only he and Kara know, someone we've never met?"

"How quickly you forget your friends, Crow. I thought you would have remembered me a little better," a voice commented from behind the orange-haired guy.

The guys turned around to see a pale blue-haired man standing there, and it was definitely someone they all knew. Well, all of them except Bruno, who had never met the man.

"Kalin? What are you doing here?" Crow asked.

"Yusei called me last night. He asked me to come up from Satisfaction Town to help Kara out since her past keeps coming back to bite her in the ass and she doesn't know how to deal with it anymore," Kalin explained. "If you remember anything, Crow, you'll know that I once felt the same way after I was freed from being a Dark Signer. My past haunted me and drove me to do crazy things as I searched for retribution for my crimes. Yusei helped me to overcome that, but unfortunately, he is unable to do the same for Kara. That's where I come in. I'm going to take over in order to do what he can't."

"Do you really think you can help her?" Jack wanted to know.

Kalin nodded once. "I do. But first…Can I please have something to eat? I've been driving for hours without stopping to get here. I think that at least deserves some breakfast, if not something more."

"I'm on it," Bruno assured him, setting aside Yusei's breakfast to begin Kalin's.

"You can sleep in my room while you're here. I share it with Yusei, but I doubt he'll be using his own bed while this trouble persists," Jack muttered as the light-haired man took the seat between him and Crow.

"Yeah. Yusei told me all about what's going on with this Haruka person. I honestly can't blame him for wanting to be there for her. If I was Kara, I'd be wanting some strength too, or I'd be jumping off a bridge by now," Kalin admitted. "That girl just can't catch a break, can she? Just when things were starting to go good for her again, this has to happen. Can't the world leave her alone for once?"

"Not until she makes up for all the bad she's done. It's called karma, and it's a real bitch," Crow grumbled.

"You're preaching to the choir here. I already know how karma is. That's why I'm here, remember? It's just…Kara has changed a lot from who she used to be. She's done a lot of good in these past few years, especially since Yusei came into her life. Even if you do have a problem with her, you can't exactly say that she's all bad. She just made poor decisions in the past when she was young and hurt, and those decisions won't leave her alone. If you were in her place, I'm sure you'd understand," Kalin said.

"Maybe so, but I'm not so I don't," Crow stated, standing. "…I'm going over to Kahlan's. I'll see you guys later."

"What's up with Crow?" Kalin asked as the guy left the house.

"…That's kinda a long story," Bruno commented, placing Kalin's late breakfast in front of him.

"Kalin's got plenty of time," Jack assured him. "We just have to hope Yusei won't get mad at us for bringing this up again."

"He'll be all right with it. I mean, after all, Kalin's his best friend behind you and Kara," Bruno pointed out.

"Enough stalling. Just tell me already," Kalin muttered.

And so they did, and Yusei let them when he came in…

Because Kalin needed to know the whole truth before he could help Kara.

Even the thing that hurt Yusei the most…

That one mistake on a night he could never really forget.

* * *

><p><em>AN: A lot of things mentioned in the __**5D's**__ part of this have not yet happened in my story simply because I'm not that far into it. I'm only in the Fortune Cup, for goodness sakes, so I suppose you could call what they're saying spoilers. 'Course, none of this story makes sense unless you read __**Strength Within**_ _and __**Her Pain, His Heart**__ first. But anyway, I just wanted you to know that Haruka isn't forgotten. She'll be back in the picture next chapter. Anywho, what did you think of this chapter? Please tell me without flaming. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day and Happy Holidays!_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Nothing much to say here, so please just read on and enjoy._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 4<span>

Kara slipped back in her room after her shower while the guys talked to the newcomer, not caring enough about them to even see who it was they were talking to. She knew she should eat something but wasn't hungry. She knew she shouldn't be alone but was in too foul a mood to seek even Yusei's company. It was because of her attachment to Yusei that Crow distrusted her and it was Crow that had ruined her mood. It would be foolish to go back to Yusei when it would just cause more problems. She would have to deal with things on her own for now.

She paced back and forth in her room for seemingly forever, wondering what she should do. Crow was gone—she heard him take off on his runner sometime after she came back into her bedroom—and she assumed he was putting distance between them by going to his girlfriend's house. He wasn't around to make her feel like a dark, heart-destroying succubus anymore, but the damage was done. How could she hope to face Haruka like this? Could she possibly face that woman from her past in this damaged state and with the knowledge that it was her fault that Haruka was the way she was?

The tri-color-haired woman stopped an hour after she began pacing, though it wasn't from fatigue. She'd drive herself mad if she continued this in such a confined space. The streets, dangerous as they were for her now, would be better for thinking. She would have to grab her coat out of the hall closet, which meant she would have to face her friends and whoever they were talking to out there. Doing so might make them force her to sit down and eat something, considering she hadn't eaten a thing since lunch yesterday. Anyone would be starving in her place. But since her mood was foul, she felt nothing of the sort. Kara just wanted to get out of there.

Taking a deep breath, Kara unlocked and opened her door as quietly as possible. No matter how little sound she made, she knew there was no escaping her housemates. They always caught her, so she wouldn't even try to elude them as that would just be pointless. She just kept her eyes on the ground, away from meeting the gaze of anyone else, as she walked down the hall towards the kitchen and the hall closet where she kept her coat. The three men that remained were engaged in conversation with the newcomer, but they didn't fail to notice Kara's sudden appearance. At least they didn't fall silent like they had before when she emerged from her room.

"Hello, Kara," the newcomer greeted, and she found that she knew who that voice belonged to from the time of the Dark Signers and her visit to the town formerly known as Crash Town.

"Kalin? What are you doing here?" Kara asked without looking up at him. She just stood there with her gaze lowered, in just the perfect position to see her guy friends out of the corner of her eye without having to really see their expressions. She only stopped walking because of her surprise to have him in her home at a time like this.

"Yusei asked me here to help you out. And also I just wanted to catch up on what's been going on with you guys and spend some time with you. It is, after all, the holiday season, and what are the holidays without friends? But the more important reason is how to deal with you and your troubling past," Kalin replied.

Kara's eyes widened for a moment upon hearing that Yusei had asked Kalin to come here to help her. Her mind flashed back to their conversation early in the morning when she had admitted that she didn't know what she was or how she could go on when her past was always coming back to haunt her. Her best friend had promised they would find a way together. She supposed this was his way of trying to find that way. She had nothing against Kalin at all. After he broke his bonds with the Dark Signers and didn't let his past rule him anymore, he actually turned out to be a very decent guy. But…

_It's that past, _Kara concluded. _He had a broken past just like me. His life in Satellite wasn't all that good, and then when he was a Dark Signer he did some things that he really regretted. It drove him to want to suffer the most severe punishment for his crimes. It was only with Yusei's help and the help of a couple of kids in Crash Town that he was able to let things go and move on. But...His past is not quite like mine. He didn't hurt as many people as I did. _Kara's eyes narrowed and she turned her face away from the others. _Everyone he's hurt has forgiven him already. He's made his amends. I can never hope to do that with all the lives I've screwed up in my life. I still haven't even earned my own mother's forgiveness._

"You going somewhere, Kara?" Jack wanted to know as she proceeded to the hall closet to retrieve her coat.

"…Just going for a walk," Kara muttered, sliding her dark coat on over her usual attire as well as a pair of winter gloves that were in the pockets. "I need to think."

"Shouldn't you eat something first? You've not one thing in your system since lunch yesterday. You really should eat before you go out," Bruno advised; hardly anything got past him when it came to his housemates' eating habits.

"I told you before, Bruno. I'm not hungry, and I don't eat if I'm not hungry," Kara grumbled, walking towards the door.

"It's not safe for you to go out there alone. Haruka could come after you, and you're still not recovered enough to face her," Yusei pointed out. "Give us a second. We'll join you."

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Kara inquired though she already knew what their answer would be.

"You might want to make that two seconds," Jack said, downing the rest of his coffee before going into his room to change into his day clothes at last. Bruno and Yusei disappeared downstairs to the garage to retrieve their coats from the place they carelessly deposited them. This left Kara alone with Kalin who was ready to go already because of his long ride through the morning to get to them quickly. This was probably the last place she wanted to be despite Kalin being a good friend.

"…You don't think I know what you're going through," Kalin assumed after a few moments of awkward silence passed by. "Kara, I may not have hurt as many people as you have, but I still understand the pain you feel whenever the past comes to haunt. I have been where you are. I know how you feel."

Kara sighed. "You might know a taste of it, but we're very different people, Kalin. Yusei, Crow, and Jack have all forgiven you for what you've done. Those gangs and the badges you destroyed back in the days of Team Satisfaction have never tried seeking revenge on you for what you did. Your past is no longer holding you down. But mine…Mine is a heavy burden I must carry with me until the day I die. You can't possibly begin to imagine what it's like…To be happy and without problems in one minute, and in the next be miserable with your life falling apart around you just because someone from your rotten past decided they wanted to get even with you after all this time. It hasn't happened to you, really. But it's happened so many times to me… My happiness…is always so short-lived. I don't know if I can ever be truly happy ever again."

"The only way to find out is by letting your past go. You can't let it keep this power over your life. The past has happened, and there's nothing you can do to change it. What's done is done. You need to accept that, let go of your mistakes, and go on living a life that makes up for all the wrong you've done. Your victims may never forgive you; that's the cold hard truth. I was lucky with mine since they were my good friends and could find it in their hearts to forgive me. But the world is not full of forgiving people. It is full of people that don't like getting hurt. When people are hurt, they lash out at the cause of their pain and most never forgive that cause no matter what. All you can do is balance out your bad with your good. That's all that's left," Kalin stated.

"…Easy for you to say. You don't have all the dark, dreaded memories that I have of the men that touched a little girl so inappropriately and the dark deeds that little girl did up until she was fifteen. All you had to deal with was the betrayed looks of your friends' faces, which doesn't compare at all to what I've seen. No offense," Kara muttered.

"None taken. And you're right, it's not going to be easy to let go. Even with my haunting past not being as bad as yours, I could only let it go under some pretty demanding circumstances where the safety of two little kids depended on it. Yours might take more time and effort, but anything's possible as long as you have someone to help you. I'm willing, and so are Jack and that Bruno guy…and Yusei is, of course. He might be able to make the most progress with you, considering the facts," Kalin commented.

"What facts?" Kara wanted to know.

"The fact that you two have some pretty strong feelings for one another," Kalin replied.

Kara's eye twitched. "I do not have any feelings stronger than friendship for Yusei, Kalin. Whatever Jack and Bruno told you about us is a lie. He likes me, but that love shit is just one-sided. We're fine just being friends."

"Are you really? You guys seem too close to be just friends. The facts point to you having more than friendly feelings for our blue-eyed buddy. You always put him before yourself, you always think about his opinion before you do something, you always seek his strength whenever you're feeling down, and you share a bed with him on occasion. Sometimes friends think that way on a few of those things, but never on all of them. Kara, I may have just come into this thing, but even I can see that you feel something for Yusei that's not friendship," Kalin remarked.

"Now you're starting to remind me of Crow, and that guy who claims to be my friend doesn't trust me with Yusei anymore. His distrust has got me doubting myself…about how in control of myself I really am around Yusei," Kara murmured, looking down at her gloved hands anxiously. "In all honesty, I…I don't know how I feel about him, Kalin. But I don't love him…and I don't want to hurt him again. Not ever again."

Kalin rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You won't hurt him, Kara. You have the control. Just ignore Crow and you'll be fine. Let your heart tell you what the right thing to do is and it won't lead you astray."

"…Okay, what's taking those guys so long? It's been more than two seconds, and two of them only had to get their coats from downstairs. What the hell is going on?" Kara demanded, pulling away from Kalin to head towards the garage door. "They'd better not have their ears pressed up against this thing when I open it, cuz if they were freaking eavesdropping on us, I'm going to be so pissed. More than I already am, I mean."

"I doubt they'd do something that childish," Kalin said as Kara yanked the door open and Bruno and Yusei collapsed on the floor in front of her. The pale blue-haired man sweat-dropped. "But I've been wrong before."

"Well, I hope you enjoyed what you heard, boys," Kara muttered, turning her back on them as they got to their feet as she headed down the hall towards Jack and Yusei's bedroom. She knocked rudely and loudly on the door. "Jack! What the hell is taking you so damn long?" Jack replied only loud enough for her to hear. "What does it matter what you pick out from your closet? All your outfits look the same! Just throw something on and get out here already!" Jack rebuked. "Jack, if you're not out here in two minutes, we're leaving without you! That's it, you got it, you stupid diva?"

"So…My best friend and his new friend are nosy children…and Jack acts like a woman when it comes to dressing…and Kara is a nutcase. Great," Kalin grumbled.

"Aren't you glad you drove all this way all through the morning to see us?" Kara teased, playfully punching him in the arm.

Jack emerged from his room wearing his usual attire, scowling. "I hope you're satisfied, Kara. I look like crap thanks to you rushing me."

"Then I guess you look like crap everyday because you look the same as usual," Bruno put in casually.

"Shut up, Bruno," Jack muttered.

The group, finally ready to leave, stepped out of the house for their walk. The snow on the ground and what was falling from the sky glistened in the sunlight of the afternoon, giving off an almost winter wonderland feeling. Kara walked with her hands stuffed in her pockets as she tried to think, but she couldn't with all these people around her. The purpose of this walk had been lost when everyone else jumped to join her. But they saw it as being for her own safety, so who was she to turn them down? It beat having to deal with her problems in the confines of her room alone, at least.

She thought at first that they had randomly decided to join her, but when Jack took the lead in directing them to where they were going she lost that idea. Someone had been doing more than catching up with a friend while Kara was pacing in her room. They had set up something that she didn't know about in a location she probably didn't know. She gave her friends dirty looks for pulling something like this without her consent. They just smiled in response. Deep down, she was actually kind of touched that they would do something like this for her despite how bad of a person she was…Or rather, used to be.

Jack led her and the others towards an old music hall, one that Kara had been in before. Back when she was still a little kid with a twin sister that wasn't assumed dead, Kara and Kahlan had taken music lessons here. Once, they had even given a concert with other students and even some well-known professional classical musicians. It had been over eleven years since she last set foot in this building. Why had they brought her here after all this time? Had Kahlan told them about this place, and how happy Kara used to be when her fingers danced on the keys of a piano?

Her blonde friend held the door for her and she hesitated to walk in after all this time. Kalin nudged her in when she froze, to which she responded by giving him a dirty look over her shoulder. They deposited their winter wear in the old coatroom before proceeding any further. Jack led the way again into the concert hall, but he instructed Kara to go onto the stage instead of where the seats were. She realized that they wanted her to perform, but it would be silly if she did so just for three people. Besides, she didn't have her instrument and had lost her touch with playing music since Mirage went away. It had been too long since she played on her own. She'd just ruin the whole thing.

Even so, she did as she was told and went through the stage entrance to walk out on the stage. To her surprise, it wasn't just the three people she came with that were in the audience to watch her. All of her friends were there. Leo, Luna, Greiger, Amyra, Mina, Trudge, Carly, Akiza, Kahlan, and Crow had come. Mina and Trudge were probably there to watch over Amyra, the heir to Kaiba Corp., by order of her brother, and that probably explained why Greiger was there. After all, that once-pothead had managed to wrap that man around her finger, so he went wherever she went. Crow still had that distrustful look in his eyes, but he would do almost anything for Kahlan to make her happy. This was no exception.

On the stage with her was a grand piano, the same one she remembered playing back when she was a child just beginning to learn how to play. It brought back happy memories buried behind the supposed death of Kahlan, memories long forgotten in the brighter part of her past. The white piano from her childhood looked just as it had before, only slightly dustier. Kara walked over to it and took her seat on the bench. She was more anxious than before, knowing she had such an audience of friends to perform her best for and also knowing she hadn't played piano in a long time. She wondered if she still had the talent while also pondering what song she should attempt to play.

Hesitantly, Kara placed her fingers on the keys. Instinct took over, and her hands became their own masters as they danced on the ivories to make music. Despite her abandoning the piano for so long, her heart remembered how to play just as before. Her heart swelled up with momentary happiness upon this realization that she could still do it. Then her voice rose up to sing a song that wasn't really that happy, but fit her true feelings at the moment better than any happy song could.

"I've been believing in something so distant, as if I was human. And I've been denying this feeling of hopelessness in me, in me. All the promises I've made…just to let you down. You believed in me but I'm broken. I have nothing left, and all I feel is this cruel wanting. We've been falling for all this time…And now, I'm lost in paradise.

"As much as I'd like the past not to exist…It still does. And as much as I'd like to feel like I belong here, I'm just as scared as you. I have nothing left, and all I feel is this cruel wanting. We've been falling for all this time…And now I'm lost in paradise. Run away, run away. One day we won't feel the pain anymore. Take it all away, shadows of you, cuz they won't let me go…Til I have nothing left, and all I feel is this cruel wanting. We've been falling for all this time…And now I'm lost in paradise. Alone and lost in paradise…" (Lost in Paradise by Evanescence)

Her fingers fell silent on the keys and her friends applauded despite the negative sentiment behind her words. She glanced down at them to find the mixed emotions she expected from a few of her friends. Kalin seemed to be calculating what such a song meant about her inner emotions, and thus had this cool look on his face. Crow looked a bit guilty, as if he thought he should have gone easier on her before and this song struck a chord within him. Yusei just looked a bit puzzled by her choice of song. She smiled a small, insignificant smile, thinking how that was so like him. He could never read the writing on the wall, could he?

Slow, mocking applause rose up above all the rest, bringing Kara's attention to the back of the concert hall along with the others'. A woman with purple hair done in a huge braid down her back with fierce gold eyes stood there, an evil sneer on her face as she stared up at Kara. The blackened eye of Kara's began to ache with remembrance of this woman, the cause of the injury in the first place. She might not look beat up and she might be in different darker attire than she had been in when Kara last encountered her, but there was no mistaking her identity.

The purple-haired woman rested her hands on her hips. "Do you remember me now?"

"Haruka Izumi!" Kara spat, standing up to face her enemy from her past. Her friends were quick to follow her example.

Haruka laughed. "It's about time you remembered who I am. After all, you did ruin my life…Though I doubt my life was the only one you ruined while being the whore you were. There must be over a hundred others. How could I have expected you to remember me out of all those faces?"

Kara scowled. "Are you back to try to kill me again in front of all these witnesses?"

"It doesn't matter how many people you have around you. I could kill you and be gone before they would know what happened," Haruka claimed casually. "But don't you worry your fat ugly head off. I'm not going to take your life from you in this time. I'm going to eliminate your family so that you would never be born…And how am I going to do that? By going back in time and killing the root of your evil bloodline! Carrie West will die!"

"If you have a problem with me, then take it out on me! Leave my great-grandmother out of this!" Kara snapped.

"How can she go back in time to kill Carrie, anyway? Don't you need a time machine for that?" Leo asked, confused. "Those things don't even exist. So how can she do it?"

Haruka chuckled. "Insolent little boy! You remind me of my little brothers, but I'll never see them again because Security took them away to foster homes when Mother took her life!" Her bitter gaze returned to Kara, the reason she had no family anymore. "I don't need a damn machine to go back in time! I have my sorcery to do that! Mark my words, bitch! Your dear great-grandmother will be dead by Christmas morning! And then, you will cease to exist along with anyone else in your accursed line! Your mother, your twin, and even your little brother! They will never exist! And my family will go back to the way it should have always been without you to tear it apart!"

The purple-haired woman began chanting a spell in a language no one recognized, and the air around them became very heavy with dark magic. The room began to feel like it was spinning, which indeed it was as Haruka opened a portal through time to take her to Carrie. Kara lost her balance on stage and fell towards the seats, but her best friend became steady enough to catch her to prevent her from being hurt. Haruka stopped chanting once the portal was fully opened and ready to admit her through time. She sneered and laughed hysterically.

"You needn't worry for long, Kara Muto! I'm bringing you along to watch the end of your existence, along with all these other peons that will forget about you once you cease to exist!" Haruka exclaimed madly.

Then the bright light that was the portal engulfed the whole room, blinding everyone but also forcing their minds into darkness.

* * *

><p>Carrie suddenly felt a sharp pang in her side, one that wasn't natural nor was it caused by her pregnancy. Mirage and Yami felt it, too, which meant it definitely was not good. She wondered if anyone else downstairs felt it, but was still too bitter with them to go find out. The blonde pulled herself away from her bed and walked over to the window just in time to see a bright flash of light in the sky that nearly blinded her. What was going on now? Why had she, her dark spirit, and her spirit lover felt pain in the same place? And what was with that light?<p>

When the light cleared away, an old-looking music hall that hadn't been there before was now on a vacant lot on the street. She gave it a curious glance, wondering how that got there and what its connection to the bright light could possibly be. Mirage was ill at ease, and hardly anything put her on edge. Yami materialized beside Carrie, looking concerned as well as he stared out at the random music hall that had no reason to be there.

"What is going on, Yami?" Carrie asked.

"I don't know. But it appears that thing has come through time. It may look old, but I feel like it's actually from a time further ahead than the one in which we are right now," Yami replied without looking at her. His eyes narrowed further. "It feels like dark magic…Like sorcery…The dark arts had a hand in bringing that building here."

"I don't like the sound of that," Carrie murmured.

**You shouldn't. Sorcery is never used for the good of anyone but its caster. And with a sorceress so close to you, you'd do well to be on your guard, **Mirage advised.

"Sorceress?" Carrie was surprised by that bit of information.

**Yes. I can tell the gender of the caster by the feel of the dark magic. It's really not that hard. I'll teach you how to do it sometime. But back to the point…This sorceress is intent on doing something to you, something that will alter this time and hers forevermore. I know that because we all felt that jab of pain in our sides. That jab was a result of the sorceress's malice towards us as she broke through time and space to come to you. You're in danger, Carrie.**

"When am I not in danger?" Carrie muttered.

"Do not take what Mirage says lightly. You know she hardly lies about this kind of thing, and it actually makes sense given the circumstances. That woman that brought that building here wishes you harm. If you are hurt…" Yami's spiritual hand came to rest over her stomach, the place where their unborn son lay in his creation. "…Your life is not the only one on the line. We're going to have to get out of here and get as far away from that woman as possible. You endanger the lives of your friends by remaining here, and the life of our son as well."

Carrie sighed. "You're right. My friends may not like this, but I have no other option. The more time we waste here talking about this, the closer that sorceress comes to doing harm to me." She pulled away from her window and went to retrieve her shoes and coat from the closet. "Well, at least I can't get advice on how to go about my pregnancy once I go on the run. That's the only bright spot in all this gloom."

**Hurry up, you pregnant wench! I feel her coming out of that place in search of you!**

"Don't rush her and don't speak so rudely to her!" Yami reprimanded.

**Sorry, Pharaoh, but you're not the boss of me. I can talk to my host any way I want. And Carrie, you'd better grab your deck. If you hope to escape from this crazy woman with your life intact, you're going to have to summon Duel Monsters to protect you. You can fight well physically, but when it comes to a battle of magic, you're hopeless. I mean, I could take her easily. I just don't think you're going to let me take over for any amount of time.**

"If push comes to shove, I might," Carrie admitted, grabbing her duel disk and deck just in case she really did need them. "Just…Don't get your hopes up."

She unlocked her door and left her room without any attempt at being quiet. Her friends were too busy talking to even notice her, anyway. It hurt her to have to leave them, and it made her heart ache to abandon Jessica like this, but Carrie had no choice. It was for their safety as well as her own that she had to go. Without even giving them a second glance, the blonde woman went out the back door, quietly closing it behind her.

When she glanced up, three voices in her head swore, including her own.

A woman with purple hair done down her back in a single braid, bitter gold eyes, and who was just shorter than her target was standing in front of Carrie, dressed in dark clothing that Mirage identified as sorcerer's clothing. She had piercings galore on her, with two rings in one ear and three in the other along with one on her bottom lip. She also had a few scars marring her beauty. But beauty was the last thing on this woman's mind as she stared down Carrie. This woman, whoever she was, wanted Carrie dead.

_I don't have enough time to summon a Duel Monster. Mirage, you're up,_ Carrie thought.

**Yes! You won't regret this, Carrie,** the dark spirit promised.

Carrie transformed to look like Mirage in the blink of an eye, granting the dark spirit complete control of her body. She rarely had this chance due to her dark nature of wanting to end the world to erase all pain, but push had come to shove. There was no other way for them to get out of this situation alive. Mirage wouldn't take advantage of this, knowing the circumstances. She would just put this woman in her place.

"I don't know who you are," Mirage began, focusing her dark eyes on the woman in front of her as that woman took a step back in surprise at Carrie's transformation. "But names don't matter. You came after the wrong mortal, and now you're going to suffer for your stupidity. You won't live long enough to regret your decision. Say your prayers, pathetic sorceress, and prepare to face death."

The woman lost her surprise and smirked. "I won't be easily destroyed. My purpose will grant me life until I complete it. I vow to end the life of Carrie West to prevent the creation of Kara Muto, and you cannot stop me!"

_Kara Muto? Who is that? _Carrie wondered.

The woman with purple hair sent a bolt of electricity towards Mirage, who casually knocked it aside into a snowman that melted upon impact. Joey would be upset when he saw his snowman gone, but that was the last thing on anyone's mind at the moment. Mirage sent dark flames from her fingertips towards the mysterious woman. Her foe knocked them aside with her own magic, chanting her spells like the sorceress she was. Mirage always hated sorcerers for that annoying chanting that gave them command over dark magic and dark souls. It was irritating. If only she could shut this one up, then it would be so much easier to kill her. But with every magical attack Mirage sent at the golden-eyed sorceress, the sorceress would just dodge or deflect it. She was not the average evil magician. She was high up in the dark arts, practically a master.

**I never thought sorcery would remain this powerful even in the future. It's unexpected, **Mirage mused. **No matter…I will end this mortal's life just as I have ended so many before her. No one comes after my host's body and escapes with their lives. She will be no exception.**

Mirage forced a huge shockwave of magic at the purple-haired sorceress, knocking her back into view of the streets. Her foe landed on her back in the snow, looking rather pathetic at the moment, as the dark-haired spirit stepped closer to her. The sorceress quickly chanted a protective spell against any attack Mirage might throw at her, a smart but useless tactic. Mirage's magic was stronger; a few effective blows and the shield would shatter around the sorceress, leaving her wide open for death. She raised her hand to do just that…

But something distracted her in the direction of that music hall from the future. People were emerging from that place, other people from the same time as the sorceress on the ground. Mirage paused a moment to determine if they were friend or foe to Carrie. None of them seemed to have any real magic that could be a threat, and there was no hatred in their hearts. They had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were, however, coming this way at the urging of one of their females. Were they after Carrie, or were they after this sorceress lady?

The sorceress acted while Mirage was distracted and shot a barrage of shadows into Mirage's abdomen, making the dark woman hiss and double over in pain. This gave the purple-haired sorceress enough time to make her escape—she knew when she was beat and that she had just got lucky with that last attack—without any chance of anyone stopping her. Her presence disappeared before Mirage could even think of tracking it.

**Damn it! Forgive me, Carrie. She pulled a fast one that I didn't see coming with those people showing up and distracting me. I'm sorry, **Mirage apologized, returning control of the body to its rightful owner.

_It's okay. Just as long as my son is safe, you have nothing to worry about, _Carrie assured her as her body collapsed in the snow from the pain. _I...I can handle this. I've felt much worse...I've been through much worse. She's actually...not all that strong compared to some of the other...magicians we've faced._

_**She won't get away so easily the next time we meet, **_Yami remarked, fuming over the actions of that sorceress.

Someone was calling her name, someone from that group of people from the future. Carrie struggled to sit up against the pain, eyes half-closed from that annoying feeling in her gut that came from the sorceress's cheap attack. She couldn't see who was approaching her and could hardly keep herself upright. A strong arm went around her shoulders to help her; the touch was foreign and yet something was there that felt familiar. Carrie made her eyes open the rest of the way to see who was holding her. That person was a woman with long tri-colored hair—the same three colors as Yugi's and Yami's—and the same green eyes that Carrie saw looking back at her in the mirror.

"…Who the hell are you?" Carrie demanded.

The woman's expression hardened. "I am Kara Muto…Your great-granddaughter."

* * *

><p><em>AN: Carrie and Kara meet after Haruka tries to kill Carrie. And now they're in the same time. Great. Well, what did you think of this chapter? Please tell me without flaming. Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: This story is probably a hopeless case, but it wouldn't be the first hopeless story that I continued to write. Here is the fifth installment of this story. Please read on and enjoy if you are here. Thank you._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 5<span>

Carrie didn't know how to react to what Kara had just told her, but that was one of the last things on her mind. Haruka's attack had caused her a lot pain, pain that could have done some damage to the life inside of her. Mirage and Yami were checking on the fetus to ensure that the blow had not harmed him as Kara helped Carrie to sit up. One of the girl's friends, a man with blue eyes and dark hair that had some flecks of gold in it, held her steady like they knew she wasn't strong enough to hold herself up. Carrie never liked to feel weak, especially when she was surrounded by strangers, but at the moment she was out of luck.

"What did Haruka do to you?" Kara demanded, silently hoping she hadn't arrived just to see her great-grandmother die so quickly.

"It was…nothing. She just shot some attack at me…to give herself enough time to get away," Carrie replied with a smirk. "I had her right where I wanted her…That bitch didn't stand a chance in hell against me."

"Well, I see where Kara got her fighting spirit and colorful language from," the blue-eyed friend commented with a small smile. His voice strangely reminded her of Tristan's.

"You didn't think I got it from my mother or my unknown bastard father, did you? No, it's purely from this woman right here," Kara stated, beaming proudly.

"…You people have some serious explaining to do," Carrie remarked. "I don't even have a child yet. How the hell can I have a great-granddaughter, or even be a grandmother for that matter? That would require me being old…Do I look old to you people?"

"You're right; we do have some explaining to do. But we can't do it here with you lying out in the snow injured like this. We have to get you inside so you can rest," Kara said. She glanced towards the house that she knew belonged to Carrie. "…Is there anyone in your home right now? I don't think you'd want anyone to see us anymore than is necessary, what with us being from the future and everything."

Carrie fidgeted nervously. "…Well…Actually…There are just under twenty people in there. I…I had news to share with my friends, and they all came over. With so many people, I barely made it out of there unnoticed…You know, to keep them from getting hurt since that woman was after me…"

"How'd you know Haruka was after you?" a blue-haired woman asked, surprised.

"I…I…Oh, what the hell…A dark spirit inside of me sensed her and told me," Carrie admitted, giving up on coming up with an excuse that made even the slightest bit of sense. "I call her Mirage, and she was the one facing Haruka when that sorceress came to kill me. She could have finished off Haruka easily…but she was distracted by you guys showing up out of nowhere."

**You give me a bit too much credit, Carrie. Haruka was a powerful sorceress. Defeating her was inevitable, but it would not have been so easy, **Mirage told her bitterly, clearly unhappy to admit that she wasn't as strong as Carrie thought she was.

_How is my son? _Carrie wanted to know—that was more important than anything else.

**He escaped harm, but just barely. He is lucky.**

_**He may not be so lucky next time if we are not more careful, **_Yami muttered.

Surprisingly, no one among the newcomers seemed to think she was crazy to bring a dark spirit into this conversation. In fact, some even had a look on their face that made her think they recognized the name of her dark spirit. She raised an eyebrow and gave them all an odd look. How could they know about Mirage? They were from the future, a future where she was a great-grandmother and probably dead. Mirage wouldn't be around then. So how…?

"I know what you're thinking. How come we're not freaking out about you claiming to have a dark spirit in you?" a boy with mint green hair in a ponytail put in. "It's quite simple, really. We encountered her in our time, only she wasn't helping anyone but herself. She waited for us to defeat all the Dark Signers and the King of the Netherworld, and then she used all the Earthbound Immortals on us cuz she wanted to defeat the Signers and destroy the world. Mirage was a real meanie and I didn't like being in her presence very much. Good thing she's gone…Or at least, she's gone in our time."

"Leo, don't talk bad about her in front of her host! Do you want to upset her and make her come out?" a girl with mint green hair in pigtails—his twin by the looks of it—asked, a bit afraid from her memory of facing Mirage back them.

The dark spirit snorted. **Upset? I take those words as compliments. The days of controlling the Immortals were grand days indeed. I almost forgot about that…It was so long ago…In another eighty years, it'll be ten thousand years ago on the nose. Oh, how time flies when you're imprisoned within a mortal mind.**

"We'll talk about everything later. Right now, we have to get Carrie out of the cold and let her rest until she recovers enough to move on her own," Kara commented, irritated they were wasting time talking about Mirage.

"Where do you suggest we take her? We can't confront her friends within that house so suddenly. It'll freak them out," another girl with tri-colored hair—Kara's own twin—pointed out.

"There's no other choice. We'll have to take her back to the music hall for the time being. One of us can come in a few minutes to bring the others to her, and then we'll come up with a plan from there," Kara said. "Trudge, will you carry Carrie over? You're the strongest of us, and you're a police officer. No one will question why you're carrying an injured girl."

The tall man with a strange scar on his face nodded and bent down to pick the blonde woman up off the ground. His hairstyle and overall stature reminded her of some bully from school, a man named Ushio Tetsu. But that guy had graduated a year after she had come to Domino and she hadn't seen him since. Besides, this guy was from the future. He couldn't be the same guy, but perhaps he was a descendant of that jerk.

"I hope no one looks out the window and sees you doing this. They might think I'm being kidnapped by someone who looks like an old bully from our school," Carrie lightly teased as the group started back across the street towards the music hall. "And your police excuse won't work here…No officers dress like that in this time period at all."

"Yeah, but the badge would be proof enough. They haven't changed much since this time period," Trudge commented, and Carrie almost freaked out when she heard how close his voice sounded to that of Yami. "And now that you brought up that I look like someone from your time, I'm a bit curious who that could be."

"Ever hear of Ushio Tetsu? You're almost a spitting image of him," Carrie remarked.

"Heard of him? He's my grandfather. You're looking at his grandson, the great Trudge Tetsu," the scarred officer declared proudly.

"What's so great about you again?" a violet-haired woman asked, souring Trudge's mood as she usually did.

"Aw, come on, Amyra. Give Trudge a break. You've been so hard on him ever since we were assigned by your brother to watch over you. You could at least try to let him have his pride for more than five seconds," the woman with short blue hair rebuked.

The green-eyed Amyra crossed her arms and pouted. "Why should I, Mina? The only reason either of you are looking after me is cuz Daiki is paying you to do it. And look what good you've done. Not only could you not keep me out of harm's way, but now we're stuck in a time when my fortune is meaningless because the Pegasus-Kaiba name doesn't exist. What's worse…Pot's very illegal in this time! What am I supposed to do to relax if I get too stressed if I can't legally use pot?"

"Aren't you so glad you're dating her, Greiger?" Leo said jokingly to the tallest man of the group, who also notably had a lot of abs on his person and didn't look half bad.

_**You are with my child, Carrie, and in a relationship with me. Don't get any ideas, **_Yami warned, sounding a bit jealous.

**Aw, is the Pharaoh jealous of a man whose got more abs than him and is a lot taller than he will ever be? Don't get your panties in a bunch—he won't be around long enough for Carrie to even try hooking up with him. Not only that, but he's in a relationship with that strange violet-haired girl that reminds me of that damn Alyssa girl. They're both _so_ annoying!**

_Makes sense. She said her name was Pegasus-Kaiba, which is a combination of Alyssa and Seto's last names. That must mean Alyssa and Kaiba married, merged their names because she didn't want to give up hers, and then had a family. If I'm Kara and Kahlan's great-grandmother, that means Alyssa must be hers._

**Okay, whatever. It doesn't change the fact that she's irritating and with that guy. The Pharaoh has no reason to be getting jealous over someone who's in a relationship and not gonna be here all that long. Besides, Greiger's only here to keep you safe from Haruka. That's all any of these people are here to do. They'll be too focused on keeping you safe to even think about getting in a relationship with anyone in this time of ours.**

_...She has a point._

_**I am not jealous!**_

**Well, you could have fooled me.**

Carrie held her head in her hand as Mirage and Yami engaged in an argument in her mind. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and most assuredly it wouldn't be the last. As long as they all existed, the arguments would never end. She blew Trudge off when he asked her if she was all right, simply grunting and looking away from him. The blonde had lucked out with them knowing about Mirage already, but she didn't even know how to begin explaining the Yami situation to them. Even if Kara and Kahlan were her descendants, they couldn't know about the Millennium Items. Eighty years from now, she doubted the Items would even exist. Of course, she didn't know that for certain as she was not from the future, but with Thief Bakura around and wanting the Items, it didn't seem likely that the feud would end without victory on either side and drag out into another time. She resolved to ask about it later when they weren't in public and she wasn't in pain or so confused about everything.

Someone opened the doors to allow Trudge to carry Carrie into the music hall. Kara took the lead from there and directed the brawny officer to a room where the blonde could lie down for the time being. The pregnant woman found it odd that everyone was listening to the tri-color-haired woman that claimed to be her great-granddaughter, as she didn't have any real authority around here. Hell, she didn't even have a strong enough voice to get her friends off her back about her pregnancy. Only when she was angry did people listen to her, and that was usually because they were afraid of being beat up or Mirage coming out. In that sense, she kind of envied Kara…But then, she hardly knew anything about her descendant yet. They had just met, after all. Maybe she shouldn't be so quick to pass judgment, good or bad, on any of these people.

"Clear out! Give her room to breathe, for Kami's sake!" Kara snapped as Trudge laid Carrie down on a couch in one of the old rooms that was just used for storage now…or rather, in their time. Anyone that didn't need to be in the room was forced to leave until only six people stood by.

"How are you doing, miss?" Kahlan asked, wondering if Carrie was still in pain from Haruka's blow and noticing her great-grandmother was holding her head in her hand.

"…I'm fine. The pain's subsiding slowly…If it wasn't caused by sorcery, it probably would be gone by now," Carrie told her. "And don't call me miss or anything of the like. My name's Carrie…Use it. I'm not your ancestor just yet."

"What about your head?" a girl with red hair that was long in front and short in back wanted to know, speaking for the first time to Carrie.

"You try having a dark spirit in your head and see how many headaches you get," Carrie muttered. _Actually, try having a dark spirit and a pharaoh's spirit in your head. It'll give you more headaches than just having one or the other._

"Yeah, I guess it would. Mirage wasn't active in me long enough for me to know your pain, but I can kinda sympathize," Kara put in. "'Course, I do get a lot of headaches from living in a house full of arguing men that act like boys, so…It's kinda relatable."

"Like you have much room to talk about arguing. If you're in a foul mood for any reason, even if it's not our fault, you'll pick a fight with the whole world," the cold-faced blonde man countered, sounding a bit like Thief Bakura with an Australian accent.

"If you could refrain from arguing, I'd appreciate it greatly. My head hurts enough as it is, and besides, it makes for poor first impressions. I would know a lot about that, all things considered," Carrie murmured before Kara could snap at the guy. "Instead of picking petty fights when we really shouldn't be worrying about such trivial matters, why don't you introduce yourselves so I'm not so in the dark when it comes to you guys?"

"I got this. As I've already said, I'm Kara Muto. This is my twin sister Kahlan Muto. That's Yusei Fudo, Akiza Izinski, Kalin Kessler, and that idiot blonde is Jack Atlas," her bossy descendant said, gesturing at each person as she said their name. Even though she was in the presence of a woman she greatly admired, she couldn't resist getting a jab in at Jack when he least expected it. "I'll introduce the others to you later when you can walk on your own again."

"If you'd like, I could summon a Duel Monster to heal you. I'm what they call a psychic duelist, and that means that I can summon Duel Monsters from their realm. I don't have my deck on me…I left it at home in my time…But if you have your cards, I'd be happy to help you," Akiza suggested.

Carrie smiled. "That's a kind offer, but I can do that on my own, thank you."

Surprise shone in Akiza's brown eyes. "You…You can?"

"Yeah. It might be a side effect of having Mirage, but I've been known on occasion to summon physical Duel Monsters into the world. Some of my friends have been able to do it, too," Carrie replied. With a groan, she reached for her arm where her deck was stuck onto the duel disk and pulled it off. She grabbed the top card and lifted it up in the air to summon it. "Dark Magician Lady, come on out and help me please."

A female Spellcaster with long brown hair and blue eyes appeared in a puff of smoke, striking a dramatic pose upon her arrival. She wore a black hat on her head similar to that of the well-known Dark Magician Girl as well as a brassiere with swirly designs reminiscent of those on Dark Magician's armor, a short black skirt, and black boots with the swirly design. Her black staff was also much like Dark Magician's, only its gem in the top was red. She glanced at the people around her awkwardly and slowly fell out of her pose, wondering what was up.

"What's going on here? Why are you weak on a couch and surrounded by a bunch of strange people? Did they kidnap you and did you somehow manage to summon me to save you?" Dark Magician Lady demanded, glancing worriedly at her mistress.

Carrie shook her head. "No, no, it's nothing like that. These people are from the future. Someone from their time has it in for me because she doesn't want someone to come into creation…And that person came back in time and attacked me. These people…They're just trying to help keep me safe from her. You have no reason to distrust them."

"Really? Are you sure?" Dark Magician Lady asked, floating around the people from the future. "This blonde guy over here looks like a pretty shady character. Not to mention that light-haired guy and the girl with marks on her throat."

"I beg your pardon! I am not a shady character!" Jack snapped.

"What's so wrong with me…?" Kalin wondered aloud.

Kara just remained silent, but her face told how she felt about what the Duel Monster had just said.

"I'm pretty sure, Dark Magician Lady. Now I didn't call you out here to judge the people around me. I need you to give me a hand. That woman that has it in for me…She used a pretty strong sorcery attack on me that's still stinging a bit. It's not life-threatening," Carrie assured the magician, "but it's a real bother. Could you do me a favor and heal me so I'm not such a burden?"

The brown-haired magician shrugged. "I suppose…But you really should send someone to track down your attacker as well. If this woman really has it for you because of something that happens in the future, you should be on your complete guard. Not only should you be worried about being healed, but also what your foe's next move will be. If you're not strong enough to summon any more Duel Monsters from my world, then perhaps your friends could…Or even these strangers from your foe's time."

"There's a problem with that idea, Lady. We don't have our decks on us. We weren't exactly expecting to be time-traveling today, so we packed light," Kahlan muttered.

Carrie waved off her excuse. "Easy fix. Once I'm healed, I'll use Mirage's power to change that. I can do that, you know. I'm the one in control here.

**Yeah…You keep telling yourself that. And who says you get to boss me around? What if I don't wanna bring their decks into this time? Huh? Whatcha gonna do about that, you pregnant cow?**

_**She doesn't have to do anything. It's Uria and the Egyptian Gods you have to worry about. And then, of course, there's me. But you just have to be afraid of me.**_

**Oh, so you'll all gain up on me, eh? Just because I'm a dark spirit that wants to destroy the world someday and doesn't want to help out my future enemies, that makes me the bad guy?**

…_**Yes.**_

**You suck…You royally suck.**

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Carrie. Won't using Mirage's power tire you out?" Kara wanted to know, concerned.

"It did at first, but now it's not so bad. The real danger is in her trying to seize complete control of me…That's overcome by the combined power of Uria and the three Egyptian Gods, along with my own willpower, of course." _It also helps that an ancient spirit joins forces with us to keep her at bay, but I can't exactly tell you about him. Not yet, anyway, _Carrie thought.

Dark Magician Lady spun her staff around before stopping it with its jeweled end facing Carrie. "Okay! Let's get you healed then, my friend! Just don't send me back to my world right after, please. That place can get so boring! There's hardly any conflict and it never changes! The human world is always changing. I like it for that. Do you promise to let me stay out for awhile if I heal you?" The blonde woman nodded once, and the Spellcaster beamed. "All righty then! Let's do some magic!"

The brunette began chanting some ancient spell in a language no one recognized as light flowed from her staff into Carrie to cleanse her body of the dark effects of sorcery and heal any damage done because of that sorcery. The blonde woman could feel the pain leaving her, a relief that washed over her like no other thing had ever done. This wasn't the first time she had been healed by magic and she doubted it would be the last. Time would come to require her be ready for anything, and natural healing just took too damn long sometimes. She breathed a sigh of relief as all effects of Haruka's magic left her and the light stopped flowing from Dark Magician Lady's staff.

With that out of the way, Carrie stood without any trouble and faced the people in front of her. "Now…About your decks…"

"That's not ne-"

"Some of us would also like our duel runners, you know," Jack interjected, cutting Kara off before she could get all her words out.

Carrie exchanged glances with Dark Magician Lady. "…Duel runners?"

"The long and short of it is they're motorcycles you can use to duel," Yusei told them.

"So you play card games on motorcycles in your time? That doesn't sound safe at all," Dark Magician Lady commented.

"They can be used just for regular transportation as well. In fact, they're used more for that than dueling," Kalin pointed out. He would know as he had just traveled overnight on his to get to New Domino City just before this whole time-traveling thing happened.

"Really? Well, if you think you need them, I can retrieve them with your decks," Carrie said, sounding pretty confident in herself.

_**Don't overexert yourself, Carrie. Remember, you are not the only person in your body anymore. Another life is forming within. If you tire yourself out by using too much magic at one time, you put not only yourself in danger, but him as well. If you start feeling weak, stop what you're doing no matter what. You understand?**_

_Yami, I know what I'm doing. You don't have to lecture me. I know my limits, and I would never do anything to harm our child. Trust me on this._

"Carrie, you really don't have to do this. We can get along just fine without those things. We're not here to duel or anything of the damn sort. We were brought here by that bitch Haruka because she wanted us to watch you die. Since she failed in her first attempt, our new reason for being here is to protect you from being harmed by her. We don't need Duel Monsters to do that. Hell, even if we did, only a few of us can summon the real ones. Psychic duelists aren't as common in our time as they are in yours," Kara stated.

"You never know what is necessary, or what could happen. It's better to be prepared for everything than to not be and get caught in a trap you could have escaped otherwise," Carrie remarked. "Now stop trying to change my mind. Once I'm set on something, it's hard to convince me to do something else."

Before Kara or anyone else could plead for her to rethink this, Carrie allowed Mirage to take partial control so she could use the dark spirit's magic. Her eyes turned almost completely black, but otherwise she looked the same as ever. She tapped into the seemingly endless supply of Mirage's power to reach into the future for the things she sought to aid her allies from that time. She became a bit detached from her body in doing so, and had Dark Magician Lady not been floating around, her body would have fallen to the floor. Though she did not know what exactly she was pulling through time, she managed to grab hold of them and brought them into existence in her time. The runners appeared with their owners' decks in the attached duel disks, and the people who had decks but not duel runners' cards fell to the floor in neat little piles.

The energy and sheer strength of will knocked Carrie flat on her ass as she returned to her body. If not for Dark Magician Lady, she wouldn't have been able to stand. Of course, her own safety was the last thing on her mind. Once again she was concerned about the safety of her unborn son, afraid that she had overexerted herself after all and it had done great harm to him. Bringing all those things into the past was not as easy as she boasted it would be—it was downright hard. But she was reassured by both the spirits in her mind that her son was fine; her actions had not bothered him. She mentally sighed in relief as her Duel Monster helped her to sit on the couch once again. Now if only she could stop being such a liability all the time by helping other people out…

Kahlan and Kara picked up the decks on the floor to identify who they belonged to, though the latter kept glancing worriedly at her ancestor because of the great strain put onto the blonde woman by bringing all this into the past. The green-eyed girl didn't think any of this was necessary—hell, she didn't think coming into the past was necessary, why couldn't Haruka just kill her?—and hadn't wanted to hurt her great-grandmother-to-be with such a demand. But Jack had gone and opened his big mouth…How had she ever come to consider him a friend?

"Let's get this stuff outta here and let Carrie rest, guys," Kahlan suggested, placing the decks onto one of the runners before moving to help push the vehicles out. She was halfway to the door when she realized Kara wasn't coming with them. "Kara? Did you hear me? We should leave her alone so she can rest."

Her twin responded by tossing the decks in her hand over her shoulder at her twin. Kahlan barely had enough time to duck to avoid being hit by the cards. Kara glanced over her shoulder at the purple-eyed girl and said, "Kay, you know I love you…But don't you dare tell me what I should do here. The whole reason we are in this damn place is because I pissed Haruka off with things I did in my damn past. Carrie is in danger all cuz of me. I will not leave her alone. It's my fault any of this is happening, so why should she have to suffer? No, I'm staying right here until we find a way to take care of Haruka…or I'll die trying to keep Carrie safe."

What she said stunned every single person in that room, though it was hard to tell who it stunned more. Those from her time knew this wasn't the first time she had willingly thrown her life in the air to be taken from her—Yusei, of all people, knew that—but she had never sounded so serious about throwing it away for another before. No, serious wasn't the right word…She had never made it sound so inevitable, like she was going to die protecting Carrie from Haruka and nothing could stop it…And her voice…It sounded so…full of hopelessness…

Carrie wondered about this. She knew so little about her descendant, and yet so much had been revealed in that one little speech. Kara had done something to this Haruka person in the past that made her become the evil little sorceress she was today. Kara knew this and felt responsible for everything. Because of that guilt, that painful feeling in the pit of her stomach, she was more than willing to give up everything if it meant Haruka would be happy and leave everything else alone. Did her great-granddaughter feel that worthless? The blonde woman remembered Haruka saying something about wanting her dead so Kara would never come into creation, but hadn't really thought about it until now.

"You don't have to watch over her, Kara. I can do so just fine. I'm a Spellcaster and a Duel Monster, so my magic is stronger than sorcery. Haruka wouldn't be able to hurt her as long as I'm around, and even if I was defeated, Mirage wouldn't let anything happen to Carrie," Dark Magician Lady told her.

"No offense, but I don't trust you or Mirage. I only trust myself to keep her safe as I'm the reason all this went down. You can stay if you want; hell, I have no control over you. Just know that I'm staying here, too," Kara muttered.

"Kara, you're being difficult. Just cuz you feel guilty about this, you're being a brat and shutting everyone out. Even I can see that and I hardly know you," Carrie remarked bluntly. "Now listen here and listen good. I trust very few people with my life. Even though you're distant family, you're not one of them yet. My Duel Monsters have my full trust and heart. I believe Dark Magician Lady will do a fine job watching over me without you to sour the mood with your depression. Now take your attitude and your guilt somewhere else cuz it's not welcome here and neither are you. You're pathetic."

Shocked, Kara just gaped at the blonde woman for her bluntness. She wasn't the only person looking at Carrie like that, either. Carrie hated to put anyone down like that—of course, that didn't count Kaiba—but it had to be done. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was a person ruled by guilt and a desire for death to end that guilt. Why did it bother her so much? The answer was simple: she had been there before. Not so much the guilt part, but the wanting to die. Her past was not a happy one at all…But she had overcome that with the help of her friends and wasn't going to turn back now. Kara had friends and should have the strength to move on as well. Even a little setback like this shouldn't drive her over the edge. If the girl couldn't take the heat, then Carrie honestly didn't want her around.

Without another word or look at anyone, Kara pushed her way around everyone to get the hell out of that room. The others exchanged awkward glances, unsure how to react to this or what to do. Kahlan suggested they go back to what they were doing before Kara and Carrie had their little exchange as she collected the thrown cards from the floor, so they returned to pushing the runners out of the room. The last person to do so was Yusei, who paused at the door to glance back at Carrie with a coldness in his blue eyes that had hardly ever been there before.

"…You have no idea what that girl has been through…You were far too hard," he stated with a bit of venom in his voice.

"On the contrary, I don't think I was hard enough," Carrie rebuked, ignoring his mood. "You are right, Yusei. I don't know anything about what Kara's been through. But you know nothing about what I've been through, so…What can you say? All I know is I've been through hell and back and I'm nothing like her. She's weak and full of guilt and ready to throw her life away over something stupid. Whatever she's been through…I doubt it's as bad as what I've had to survive. If this breaks her, then she is nothing but a brat that can't handle mistakes. She has to learn to get over her mistakes or she might as well never have come into existence."

"Carrie! Isn't that a bit cruel to say about your descendant?" Dark Magician Lady asked, astounded that Carrie could be so cold.

The blonde woman shook her head. "Kara is no descendant of mine. No one from my bloodline is weak, or at least, not so weak that they want to throw their life away over something they did in the past coming back to bite them in the ass."

"You…You shouldn't be so quick to pass judgment on someone you don't even know. And how dare you talk about her like this. She's had nothing but respect for you and has never said one bad thing about you, but yet you're not kind enough to return the gesture. All you do is talk trash just because you've seen a single glimpse of her," Yusei said, shaking with suppressed anger over hearing Carrie speak so of Kara. "If you want her to never exist, then all you have to do is forfeit your life to Haruka. By the sound of it, that's what you want, anyway."

"I never said I didn't want her to live or exist. I just said that if she can't learn to accept her past and move on, she might as well not exist," Carrie corrected him. "And I'm not gonna give up my life for anything unless it's for the safety of someone close to me. I have reasons to live that apparently your beloved Kara doesn't. My family and friends need me; I need them. Nothing, including this Haruka chick Kara pissed off, is gonna separate us."

"I'm not going to stand here and argue with you over your biased opinion of Kara. It's just a waste of breath," Yusei grumbled, turning to leave. "But you'd do well not to talk like this again in front of me. You may be a woman and Kara may respect you even though you don't deserve it…But if you ever insult her again without knowing the facts, I will not hesitate to make you pay for it."

Carrie raised an eyebrow in surprise, not expecting Yusei to be the kind to issue threats, especially against women. "…You love her, don't you?"

Yusei didn't answer, but his lack of answer was in itself answer enough. She watched him go with curious eyes until he closed the door behind him, wondering if perhaps she had misjudged Kara after all.

* * *

><p><em>AN: This chapter was all over the place. Consider it as more of a filler than anything else. And FYI, Dark Magician Lady is not a real card or character. She is a character I made up who first appeared in card form in Chapter 47 of **Her Pain, His Heart** and in physical form in Chapter 55 of the same story. So Carrie passed judgment on Kara and no one's all that happy about it. Do you think she was being fair? What did you think of this chapter as a whole? Please tell me without being rude or flaming. Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day!_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Not much to say here, but if you're here, please read on and enjoy._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 6<span>

Crow probably should have stayed with Kahlan when Kara had cleared the room, but despite all that had happened since the start of this day, he still didn't want to be in the same room as his girlfriend's twin or the guys he lived with. Instead of staying with Kahlan, he followed the others as they returned to the concert hall to wait for those in the room to come out. Their dispute over whether or not Kara could be trusted alone with Yusei was bothering him more than he would have liked to admit. Why couldn't those guys see what he saw instead of being on her side all the time? She may have had a rocky past, but that was no excuse for her present behavior. It wasn't like Crow didn't like her—they were good friends—but he just didn't want to see Yusei hurt by her or her hurt by herself ever again.

If the orange-haired guy were to be honest with himself, he'd admit that he wouldn't have even come here if it wasn't for Kahlan. His kind-hearted girlfriend wanted to help her sister feel better and not depressed because of this Haruka stuff. It had been her idea that they all go to this old music hall and have Kara play, as she had remembered how happy the tough woman used to be when she played music for people. Crow hadn't wanted to go, but he couldn't tell his angel that. It would crush her if she knew her boyfriend didn't trust or be around her sister. So he had bit back his distrust to make Kahlan happy…

Now look what had happened.

It had been chance alone that Haruka had caught them all in the same place. If they had never planned on coming to this music hall for Kara's sake, most of the people here—if not all—would still be in their own time and not stuck in a place they didn't belong. Only Kara and those in the house with her would have been forced through time. He wouldn't have minded that too terribly much at the moment. The only downside, of course, would be his home would be gone, but Mayu and Kahlan would let him stay at their place. It would have been fine…

_What am I thinking? Wishing they were stuck here and I wasn't is a terrible thought, _Crow chided himself, shaking his head to rid himself of the negativity as he sat down. _Yusei, Bruno, Kalin, and even Jack and Kara are my friends. I may not like all of them at the moment, but I wouldn't wish them to suffer like that. If they're going to be in trouble, I want to be right there beside them to help them out any way I can. Besides, this Haruka wants to kill Carrie West to prevent Kara's creation. If that happens, not only will Kara never exist, but neither will Kahlan. I don't want to imagine a world without my Kay. She is my world. _His hand clenched into an angry fist at the very thought of losing his love. _This fight just became very personal all of a sudden._

"Hey Crow," Carly greeted, sitting beside him. "Why aren't you with Kahlan?"

The fluffy-haired man shrugged. "…I have my reasons. Why aren't you in there with Jack? Is he giving you the cold shoulder again and acting like he doesn't like you?"

"No, no. It's nothing like that. It's just…I don't need to be in there. Those guys can take care of Carrie without me," Carly told him. She looked at the hands folded in her lap and sighed. "And…Well, I don't want to make Mina and Amyra jealous of us. We're just starting to get along again…If I start looking like I'm flaunting my relationship with Jack in their face, they'll start hating me again and we'll be back where we were at the beginning of all this."

"I thought those two were in relationships of their own," Crow commented.

"Well yeah…Mina is with Trudge and Amyra is with Greiger. But they still have some strong feelings for Jack that they just can't let go of. I try to respect that by not hanging all over him while they're around. Jack doesn't much like it, but he understands why I do it," Carly murmured. "…Are…Are you and Kay having problems?"

"No. Why do you ask?" Crow wanted to know, confused.

"You said you had your reasons for not being in there with her. I just thought it might be you guys hit some rough patches in your relationship for the first time," Carly said, embarrassed. "I…I didn't mean anything by it. You don't have to explain yourself or anything. I just…I just wanted to know you two were still good."

"We're fine. We're as good as we've ever been, and let me tell you that it's pretty great. My reasons for not being in that room with them have nothing to do with her, I promise. But from the sound of it, it seems that you and Jack might be having some problems," Crow pointed out.

Carly turned red and quickly looked away, fidgeting nervously. "…Now that you mention it…We are kinda having issues. Not only because I have to keep my distance to keep from disrespecting the girls…But also…Jack never has time for me. He's always working on his dueling and his runner…Even when I'm around, I might as well not be, you know? He doesn't stop whatever he's doing for me like you do for Kay and Yusei does for Kara. He just…keeps right on working." The dark-haired girl sighed and Crow could almost feel her sadness like it was his own. "I…I don't even know if he loves me anymore. I don't even remember him telling me he loved me as a Dark Signer…He hasn't said it since then, either."

"Have you tried talking to Jack about it? I mean, I know he's got a hard head and barely any brains, but I'm sure if you told him he would do something to change," Crow suggested.

"…We've tried talking about it, but it always ends the same. He gets mad, we argue, I end up crying, and we go our separate ways. It's always the same and nothing ever gets resolved," Carly remarked. "…That's not even the worst of it. I can handle fights…They are a normal part of any relationship. But…But he never apologizes for it. I always do, but he…He acts like nothing happened and that he wasn't in the wrong." She sighed again. "But then…What can you expect from a guy that spent years as a King?"

"…I don't know what to tell you, Carly. I'm pretty new to this relationship stuff myself," Crow admitted. "But his attitude is kinda uncalled for if he really loves you. If he ignores you, doesn't make time for you, doesn't tell you he loves you, and never apologizes when he's wrong…Then maybe he's not the one for you. I know you love him and you don't want to lose him…and that losing him was part of the reason you became a Dark Signer way back when…But sometimes, you have to make tough decisions that are the best for you. My advice is this. Try talking to him again. If he doesn't seem to change then, well, he's never going to change and you're better off without him."

Carly sighed, but at least her sadness had lessened a bit. "…Thanks, Crow. That's by far the best advice I've received…Kay, Akiza, Leo, and Luna all told me to find a way to stand by him because he would eventually change when push comes to shove. Kara told me I should and I quote 'drop his ass' cuz I deserve better. Amyra and Mina…They of course wanted me to dump him so they could have a shot at him. The others were…not really helpful because they weren't really the relationship type, you know? You're the only one…that has told me something to do to help me." She leaned over and hugged the short man awkwardly. "You're a really good friend, Crow."

"…Uh…You're welcome, Carly," Crow muttered, unsure how to react in this situation.

"Leo! You shouldn't be playing around on that piano!" Luna exclaimed, directing their attention to the goofy kid fooling around on the top of the white instrument that Kara had played just before they had come through time. Leo was not listening to her at all, but that wasn't anything new. His twin sister face-palmed. "Someone, please get my brother down from there before he hurts himself."

"You worry too much, Luna! I'm not gonna hurt myself!" Leo boasted, jumping around like an idiot. "And what am I supposed to do? There's nothing fun to do in this time! Our cards are back in the future and we have to watch over Kara and Kahlan's ancestor! That's just _so_ boring! I have to entertainment myself somehow or I'll die of boredom!"

"Do you have to jump on the instruments, though?" Bruno asked.

"He's a dork. Of course he has to jump on the instruments," Amyra grumbled with crossed arms. She then grabbed Greiger's arm and started pulling him away. "Come on, Greiger. If we're gonna be stuck in this boring place for however long, I want to entertain myself with you in private."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Greiger inquired, but his question went unheard.

"Don't follow us, lackeys! We wanna be alone!" Amyra shouted at Mina and Trudge before she and Greiger disappeared around a corner. "You're off-duty until I get back!"

"Just don't go past second base! Your brother would kill us if he knew we let you go farther and you ended up pregnant!" Mina called, knowing she couldn't really control Amyra so she just let her go. She groaned. "Why did we agree to this stupid assignment again? I hate that spoiled girl and she hates us. What demon possessed me to make me want to be her bodyguard?"

"Daiki chose us and wouldn't let anyone else watch over her. The money was an initiative for us accepting in the end," Trudge reminded her as he wrapped his arms around the blue-haired woman's waist. "She'll be fine as long as we're stuck in this boring place, and you know Greiger wouldn't let anything happen to her. So, since we're 'off-duty', Amyra shouldn't be the only one having fun. Don't you think?"

"Trudge, you know I can't get in the mood when we're at work. We might be 'off-duty' by her word, but you know Daiki is the real one calling the shots. We're not really off-duty unless he says so," Mina told him, knocking his arms off of her.

"Come on, Mina. She can't get into any trouble here. No one's after her life, and she's with her boyfriend in some corner in this building. Our job is to keep her out of danger and she's out of danger. Can't you at least try to relax?" Trudge asked as he placed his hands gently on her shoulders and starting massaging her. "You've been so tense since we were assigned to this. You need to relieve some of that stress."

"…Curse you and your good hands and your sudden ability to smooth talk really well," Mina muttered with a small smirk. "Fine. We can go somewhere private for ten minutes. But if Amyra gets in trouble or is hurt during that time, you are gonna get all the blame. You got it, Trudge?"

"Yes ma'am," Trudge mumbled.

"Where's everyone going? You're not just gonna leave me here to baby-sit, are you…?" Bruno asked, but his question fell on deaf ears as the officers left. He sighed. "Sometimes it sucks to be so easy-going…"

"Don't worry, Bruno. We're not going anywhere," Carly assured him, jumping out of her seat and coming to join him and Luna near the stage with Crow right behind her.

"You sure that wouldn't be different if Kay and Jack were out here?" Bruno teased.

"It wouldn't be, I know. Kay wouldn't allow you to shoulder the duty alone, and Jack's 'too good' to make-out with anyone in a public place," Crow told the blue-haired guy. "Besides, we know what a handful Leo can be. We wouldn't let you go through that alone cuz we know you'd never do that to us. It's a painful situation to be in."

"Hey! I'm not that much of a pain!" Leo exclaimed just before he slipped on top of the piano and began falling backwards. "Ahh! Someone save me! I don't wanna break my head open in the past…or at all!"

Crow dove and caught the dorky little kid before he could hurt himself. Leo mumbled out a thanks as he made to stand again. Luna looked at him in disappointment, shaking her head over the fact that Leo never listened to her. He responded to that by tackle-hugging her to the floor. She couldn't help but smile—she could never stay mad at her brother for too long even when he was being a complete idiot.

"That's it. No more jumping on the piano for you," Crow grumbled as Carly helped him back to his feet and the twins stood as well. "You can be just as bored as the rest of us cuz there's no way I'm catching you if you fall again. What do you eat…five cows at one sitting?"

"No!" Leo shouted, a bit offended. "…I…just eat a lot of ice cream!"

"A lot? A lot is one whole tub. You eat a mountain of it and never leave me any. Two tubs of ice cream a day, plus other sweet treats…It's a wonder you still have blood that's not just sugar," Luna remarked.

"Lies, Luna! I let you have a scoop of ice cream that one time!" Leo claimed.

"Leo, that's not healthy. Eating all that ice cream and sugar could make you sick," Carly pointed out.

"Well, at least now we know why he's so hyper all the time," Crow said.

"Once we're back in our time, I think Luna should keep all the sweet stuff out of your house and make you eat just healthy food. If push comes to shove, I could even come over to cook good food for you guys," Bruno suggested. "You know, vegetables and fruits and whole grain and lean meat…"

Leo clamped his hands over his ears. "No! No! No! All that stuff is gross! Stop talking about it! I want my candy and cake and chocolate ice cream! You can't take it from me so close to Christmas! No! No! No!"

"Yes, I think that would be a good idea," Luna agreed with a smile. "Leo has been gaining a few pounds lately cuz of all the sugar he eats." At this, her twin brother muttered something about that being a fat comment. "I know we shouldn't be worrying about this now since we're not even in our time and lives are in danger, but we'd appreciate it a lot if you would help him out."

"Traitor!" Leo accused, pointing a finger at his twin.

Bruno smiled. "We can talk about this again later when we're back in our time."

Just then, Kara went bolting through the concert hall at a speed she hardly ever used. She just barely managed to avoid knocking over anyone in her hurry to get away from something. Crow didn't get the best look at her face, but from what he saw he determined that something had really upset her. This time it wasn't his fault; someone else was the cause for those tears running down her face. He wanted to put his money on Jack for being the reason—it wouldn't be the first time Jack had made a girl cry—and yet, it didn't feel right. Somehow this didn't seem like something Jack had done. Before he or anyone else could ask her what was wrong, Kara was gone, leaving them to look at each other and wonder if they should go after her.

The others that had been in the room with Kara and Carrie slowly filed in, pushing duel runners that had no right to be in this time. Only Yusei remained notably absent, but probably for a good reason. Kahlan told them what Carrie had done to bring the runners and their decks through time to help them in protecting her as she pushed Crow's runner over to him. That explained that, but it didn't explain Kara's sadness. Kalin filled them in on that while Trudge, Mina, Greiger, and Amyra came back into the room looking like hot messes though they went largely unnoticed.

_I can't believe Carrie actually put Kara down like that. All she wanted to do was help, and anyone that knows Kara knows she's always so depressing and a loner about things like this. That was completely out of line, _Crow thought bitterly. _And she said it while Yusei was in the room, too. No wonder he's still not here. He's probably giving Carrie a piece of his mind right now. Can't exactly call foul on that. If that woman had said something like that to Kay, I'd be in there chewing her ass out too._

"Where did she go?" Kahlan asked as she handed people their decks though her eyes were on Crow.

The orange-haired man shrugged. "I'm not sure. She ran by a few minutes before you guys came out and took off in that direction, but she didn't give any clues to where she was going. What Carrie said…It really shook her up. I don't think I've ever seen her this bad over what someone's brutal words."

"What can you expect? She respected this woman ever since she was a child. Kara may have been brought here to watch her ancestor die, and now she may have to protect that ancestor, but I know she was really excited to meet Carrie West in person. Meeting her idol…It just backfired big time," Jack muttered.

"Poor Kara," Luna murmured sympathetically.

"We should go look for her. She hasn't been her strongest lately, and with this new pain, there's no telling what she might do while by herself," Akiza said, knowing Kara and her habits a bit too well.

Crow felt a pang in his stomach when he saw Kahlan's eyes widen as she read between the lines of Akiza's words. He knew the red-haired woman had a point—Kara was notorious for running for the edge when things pushed her that way—and he hated it. If anything happened to Kara, Kahlan would never be the same. Yusei wouldn't be the same. Hell, even he wouldn't be the same. They had their differences, but he would never wish ill on her. She was his friend. She didn't deserve all this pain and didn't have to try to be strong alone.

Before they could form their search parties, Yusei appeared in the room with his own duel runner and a serious scowl on his face. Crow couldn't remember the last time he had ever seen the dark-haired man so mad. It was as he feared—hearing Carrie talk down to Kara had upset Yusei. He said he was calmer now than he had been a few moments ago when asked, though it was almost impossible to imagine him being angrier than he was now. Yusei asked where Kara had gone, and after being pointed in the direction, he requested the others leave her to him because he believed only he could help her. Crow held his tongue about his friend's feelings clouding his judgment, knowing he would be the same if he was in Yusei's shoes and Kahlan was in Kara's. All he could do was watch Yusei run off after the girl he loved, hoping that his friends could help one another without one getting hurt.

The others glanced at each other, unsure what to do now that that matter had been taken out of their hands. There were other things to worry about, of course, like the invisible threat of Haruka returning to finish what she had started, but Carrie had made it very clear that she didn't want any of them watching over her at the moment. The only people she trusted with her life were among her friends. Coming to this conclusion, the group realized that they would have to consult with Carrie's friends now before things could spiral too far out of hand. It would be best if only a couple of people went over there as to not overwhelm them with numbers from the future.

Some people weren't very good candidates for the job. Leo and Luna were just kids, so they wouldn't be taken very seriously. Trudge looked too much like his grandfather who had been a bully to Carrie's friends. Amyra was rude. Greiger couldn't go if Amyra couldn't go. Mina had to stay here to watch over her charge. Kahlan's hair would stand out too much, considering Yugi was the only person in this time period with the color scheme. Jack was an ass. That left only a handful of people that could go over there without causing too many issues.

"I'll go," Akiza offered.

Crow glanced at Kahlan, and though he'd rather stay with her, he knew that look in her eyes. She wanted to help out both her ancestor and her sister, but could do neither for reasons out of her hands. If she was unable to help, the best thing he could do as her boyfriend would be to help in her place.

"I guess I'll go, too," he said with a sigh. "At least it'll be something to do and it'll keep me away from Jack for awhile."

Jack glared at him for that, but the more important person in his life gave him a small smile as thanks for his offer. He returned her smile, glad to see hers even if it was so minute and not full of the happiness he preferred.

"We'll start securing this place while you're gone. Carrie might not want us watching over her directly, but we can still protect her in our own way," Mina stated as Crow and Akiza put on their winter gear and strapped their duel disks onto their wrists, just in case.

"We shouldn't be gone too long," Crow said.

"Don't be so sure. Remember, we have to explain the whole situation to these people, and they may not believe us. That'll take time," Akiza reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah…Don't forget about the part where we have to convince them that we didn't kidnap their precious little Carrie," Crow muttered.

"Just be as quick as you can and be careful. Mirage might have thwarted Haruka, but there's no telling what that corrupt woman will pull," Trudge pointed out.

"In other words, don't die," Amyra bluntly paraphrased.

* * *

><p>Kara ran far back into the music hall to the oldest part of it, a part that was meant to be renovated long ago but never was. There was a particular two-story room that had been barred off for years as it was extremely decrepit and on the verge of collapsing. She knew exactly where it was because she had been in it in her younger years. She and Kahlan had snuck into it once to skip their lessons for the day, and it ended with bruises from falling debris and a scolding from their mother. That memory was not in her head at the moment, however, as it was easily blotted out by the harsh words of her ancestor and the pain within Kara's heart.<p>

She broke through the locked door easily without even looking at the wooden blockade. It fell off its ancient hinges and to the floor, loudly breaking into pieces from the impact. She didn't care about it or pause to deal with the mess. The tri-color-haired woman made for the way to go up onto the very unstable second floor. There had never been stairs here in this ancient storage room; there was only an old ladder that was just as stable as the room it stood in. It managed to support her weight as she climbed up fifteen feet to the floor above, creaking slightly because of its condition. It held all the way despite her subconscious fear of it snapping. Once she reached her destination, she didn't give the old thing another thought. She just jumped onto the second floor of the room and slowly walked towards the center of it, careful now so she wouldn't cause herself to fall through and severely hurt herself.

Tears streamed down her face during all of this, the result of Carrie's cruel words. Kara didn't understand how they had managed to cut so deep. All her great-grandmother had said was she didn't trust Kara and she didn't want her attitude or her guilt around and that she was pathetic. Maybe it was because she had respected and admired Carrie ever since she was little girl and was torn up for letting her idol down. Maybe it was because of the way Carrie had looked at her when she said those words. The blonde woman had looked irritated and disgusted, hateful even, as she spoke those bitter things to her descendant. That look had come onto her face when Kara had said she would die trying to protect Carrie. Why that had happened was beyond the tri-color-haired woman's understanding, but it had cut her deep, aided by the pain caused by her past coming back to haunt her once again.

She collapsed on the center of the floor, feeling the dilapidated wood bend pathetically under her weight as she did so. At this point, she was too numb with misery to care if the wood gave way under her and delivered her painfully to the ground. All she could do was stare at the holey ceiling above her as she continued to cry and her heart continued to ache with a million pains more than she could handle. Why wouldn't the darkness just close in around her and take her away forever already? Why couldn't it take away the pain so she could finally be at peace with the world? Why was life always so cruel to her?

Below her, the scarred woman heard someone walk into the room and step on the remains of the door. The room wasn't all that big; it wouldn't take the person long to find out where she was even in the dark now that they knew she had come here. She didn't even care that much if she was found. She just subconsciously hoped it wasn't by a certain man she called her best friend. Though she desperately needed his strength right now, clinging to him was part of the reason she was hurting at the moment. A small part, but still a part because it made one of her friends distrust her so cruelly.

Her eyes closed tightly as she heard him call out her name. It was the person she hadn't wanted it to be, but some part of her had known that right from the start. He was the only person that would pursue her like this—not even Kahlan would go this far. It only made the tears fall harder and her breath draw shorter as the sadness made it more difficult to take in the air. Why did he come for her when he shouldn't? Why couldn't he just leave her alone and live a decent life without her? He was always better off without her, and yet he had never been willing to give her up. Why couldn't he let her go?

She heard him grab onto the unstable ladder and knew he would be on her level soon if that old thing didn't break. She forced her body to move quickly, though it refused to stand in her misery, and literally crawled to the farthest corner away from him. The wooden floors creaked loudly with her every move, but the sound fell on deaf ears to her. All she could do was curl in a ball in the corner as she continued to weep so endlessly, hoping he would overlook her presence just this one time. Just this once, she wanted him to not notice her hiding in the shadows and go on his own way…

It was not to be.

The floor groaned under him as he made slowly his way towards her, and she knew it was towards her because she could practically feel his eyes on her despite their distance. She refused to open her eyes to confirm what she already knew, wanting to hold onto her lonely delusions as long as she could. Her misery would only grow worse once those were ripped from her by his realized presence. She didn't deserve him, especially after everything she had put him through. She had never been good enough for someone with such a pure heart as his, tainted with darkness as she was. People like her only hurt people like him, or people in general really, as she had done time and time again. He should have left her behind long ago. Yet he refused to abandon her, calling her his friend when no one else would ever. He never let her go, and he would never let her go no matter what she did to him or how bad she hurt him…

And that was what hurt her the most.

She felt him looming over her and her delusions fell apart. There was no escaping it now.

"Kara, you don't have to be alone," he whispered.

His voice increased the tempo of her tears and her heart hurt so much that she couldn't stop herself from letting out a miserable cry that tore at his very soul. She felt him hesitate to come any closer or say anything else, but knew he would do both. He wasn't the kind of guy that would leave her be. He would do everything in his power to relieve her suffering, no matter what it cost him. Time and again she had tried to turn him away, but she never succeeded. Why would this time be any different?

The floor beside her rasped its complaints, telling her that he was now sitting there next to her. A gentle hand rested on her shoulder in what was meant to be a comforting manner, but stung more than anything Carrie could have said. She pulled away quicker than she had ever done before, not aware of what he might be feeling, but knowing for her own heart's sake that she could not do this. She recoiled from him like never before, readying her emotionally-taxed body for the flight it would have to endure again to escape this situation. She knew the chances of actually succeeding were slim to none, but that was not enough to keep her from trying. The fragile woman forced herself to stand, to move, to run away from him before he could stop her. Despite knowing that the floor beneath her was weak, she was too desperate to consider the consequences. Her desperation only increased when he called out her name as she ran on the unstable wood.

She barely had time to gasp when the floor gave way beneath her, creating a hole that sent her plummeting back to the ground level. He screamed her name like it was a lifeline that could keep her safe, but it fell on deaf ears as she could only hear the sound of her own heartbeat. Her ever-breaking heart's thrumming filled her head, counting down the seconds left until it would stop forever. Its speed was like that of music meant for a fiery dance, and wasn't she in a fiery dance? Always in a dance with Death, trying to pull one over his eyes so he would grant her life though her time was long over? She had flirted with Death so often before now, dancing sensually with him to the beat of her heart, and it was only a matter of time before he tired of her antics and took her life at last. Was this that time? Would she finally be granted freedom from her everlasting pain?

Her body screamed in agony as it impacted the cold hard floor. She did not cry out, too full of misery and doubt to voice any other pain—her endless tears were more than enough. The resulting pain from falling fifteen feet was less than she thought it would be; nothing felt broken or even bruised all that much. But despite the condition of her body, the woman found herself unable to move. What was the point? Running would only prolong the inevitable. He would always find her and never let her go. He hadn't ever done it before—why would he start now? Wish to be alone all she wanted, wish to be free from pain all she wanted…But it would never come to pass.

He made his way down to her as quickly as he could without going down the same way she had. She closed her eyes before he could reach her, wanting to form at least one barrier between them in her last feeble attempt to keep him away. He deserved so much better than her, so much more, but yet he didn't want better. Why did he want her so badly that he would go through so much pain to stand by her side? Why did he care so much about her despite everything she had done to him since they met in the Facility?

Why did he love her when she wasn't worth it?

He was kneeling beside her and leaning over as he looked to see if she had broken anything from her fall. Her eyes fluttered open when she couldn't stand to keep them closed anymore, and the first thing she saw in the darkness was his beautiful blue eyes as he looked down at her with a concerned expression. Those eyes…They had been the first thing she had noticed about him in the Facility as well. They were a slightly dark shade of blue and always showed his emotions so clearly…Seeing them reminded her why blue was her favorite color. It was because of _him_…Him and those beautiful eyes…

He helped her sit up, wrapping his strong arms around her waist and unintentionally increasing her misery. Just being touched by him made her feel things she didn't want to feel, things she never wanted to feel after that night she slipped up. They were just supposed to be friends and nothing more. That had worked so well up until lately; this whole Haruka situation had sent her heart spiraling out of control so fast she had lost a grip on so many things all at once. She didn't like being made helpless to her feelings. Emotions should never dictate a life. She wanted to just be friends with him, but somehow…Being held by him just felt so…right…

"Kara, stop running from me. Let me help you," he said, gently brushing the dust and wooden fragments off of her.

His hand accidentally grazed a new bruise on her arm, causing her to wince. As always, he noticed her reaction. He moved to remove her half-jacket—she let him because she was too numb with misery to stop him—and took it off to inspect her injury. An ugly green blotch stood out among the pattern of scars on her arm, joined by other bruises and scratches all over her exposed skin. Despite those few things, he seemed slightly relieved because her injuries were so minor.

"You shouldn't have done that. It was reckless and you could have been hurt," he murmured, but his voice wasn't as stern as it usually was when he lectured her. "I know Carrie rattled you and you're in pain…That's still no reason to be so careless."

"…It's not about her," Kara rasped, voice cracking from her unhampered emotions as she shook her head. "…It…It has little to nothing to do with her…"

He seemed surprised by this. "Then…Why were you so upset when she-?"

"Because she did hurt me…Despite all my respect for her, she put me down and called me out in front of everyone…," Kara admitted, cutting him off. "Her words just…set me off. I've been…I've been on the brink of an emotional breakdown all day…It just turned out worse than the one I had last night because…I don't know why! Maybe last night wasn't a real one and this damn one is!" She took a ragged breath and lowered her gaze. "…I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, Kara," he assured her in a soothing tone, gently pushing her head into his shoulder so she had a place to cry. His hand moved to the small of her back as he continued to hold her, wishing he could do more than speak kind words. "You don't have to continue to be strong. It's just us, and you know I would never condemn you for showing your feelings. You know I would do anything for you."

"…I know…That's part of the problem…," Kara whimpered. She felt his confusion at her statement, and though she didn't want to admit anything to him, she couldn't stop herself from speaking. "No matter what I put you through…No matter what I do to you… No matter how much I hurt you…You always come back for me and never let me go. Even after that night…when I used you and then stomped on your heart…How can you keep doing this? Knowing that you'll keep coming back no matter what…It hurts me more than anything else…Even my past." His beautiful blue eyes widened slightly at that statement, for if something could hurt her more than her past, it was a significant thing. "Oh Yusei…Why can't you just spare us both and forget me…?"

He pulled back and looked her right in the eyes. "Kara, you and I both know the answer to that question."

"…Because you love me…," Kara sobbed. "You shouldn't…But you do."

Yusei nodded once. "Love makes a person do crazy things, which includes taking all kinds of pain to stand by the one they love even if that person doesn't love them back."

"…I don't want to hurt you, Yusei…Regardless of what feelings I have for you in my heart, I don't want to hurt you. You're my closest friend…For the longest time, you were my only friend…Bonds like that are not easily severed. They hurt you so much because your feelings for me have changed…But…You are not alone," Kara said.

"What do you mean?" Yusei asked.

"…Your feelings…They are not the only ones that have changed," Kara reluctantly admitted. "I…I want you…and sometimes it feels like I need you to go on. But…But in the end, I'll only ever end up hurting you. That's why…That's why we can never be more than friends. Crow's right about distrusting me around you. I can't control myself when I'm alone with you. But if I don't…You'll just end up getting hurt even more than you were after that night when I lost control. And with my past…My pain would become such a burden. I could never burden you with that, and I could never let myself hurt you more than I already have." She sniffed as her tears continued to fall even after all this time. "…You deserve much better than a whore like me, anyway…"

"What does Crow know? His distrust is misplaced and he's afraid of losing me to you. He's just being overprotective of a friend. He can get over it," Yusei stated. "And your past would be a worthwhile burden. You've shouldered its full weight for so long already. I would gladly share its weight with you if it meant you would be even a little bit happier. And don't worry about the pain. Relationships are full of it because no one is perfect and the heart is a sensitive thing. I'm sure I've hurt you as much as you've hurt me; it's human nature. And stop saying that you're a whore undeserving of me. You're not a streetwalker anymore and you've changed into the best woman I know. If anything, I don't deserve you."

"Your heart clouds your judgment, Yusei…Unlike you, I'm trying to ignore mine," Kara whispered sadly. "It only ever causes us pain…"

"Stop saying stuff like that. If you ignore your heart, you'll never feel anything. You'll become the person you were before in that past that hurts you so if you stop feeling. Pain is a part of life that no one can escape. Don't shut it out; embrace it and grow stronger from it," Yusei urged.

"But I…I can't do it…," Kara cried.

"Yes, you can. You just have to believe in yourself," Yusei told her.

He pulled off his own jacket and pushed her head against his chest right above the place where his heart was beating. She heard its steady rhythm fill her head, a beat a couple could dance slowly to, so different from the fiery beat of her own heart. It sounded so strong, so contrary to her own, a heart that could never falter as hers often did. She knew he had experienced so much pain in his life—he was from Satellite, after all, and he had been her friend for some time now which constituted a certain amount of pain—and yet it was nothing like her own pain-stricken heart. How could it be that two people with so much pain had such different hearts? Why couldn't her heart be more like his?

"I have felt a fair share of pain in my life, but I've never let it rule me. I've embraced it and strengthened under its grip. Your pain may be more than mine, a great deal more, but I know you can do the same. You just need to stop closing your heart off to everything and let me help you. Let me help you, Kara. Please. For both of our sakes," Yusei practically pleaded without letting the tone seep into his voice.

Kara shuddered in uncertainty as she pulled her head away from his chest, not knowing what she should do. Yusei made it all sound so simple, like she could change herself so effortlessly despite all that she had gone through. She almost wanted to believe him, but the pain wouldn't let her do it so easily. Needing a little more confirmation, Kara pulled off her gloves and placed a shaky hand above Yusei's heart. He trembled a little under the touch of her cool hand on his warm body since only a piece of cloth separated them from skin-on-skin contact, but his heartbeat barely changed. His heart was very much strong, as strong as she wished for hers to be.

With a sigh, she conceded. "…Help me…"

Her voice sounded so weak, she was almost shocked by it. But she was through being shocked by the pain in her body caused by her emotions. She had to change or she would never be able to overcome who she once was. She didn't know how Yusei would help her, but she hoped it would work and her heart would become as strong as his.

She was tired of dancing to the beat of her fiery heart with Death whenever the pain took over, tired of flirting with him in hopes that he would keep her life going, and tired of feeling so weak that simple blunt words from her ancestor would send her into an emotional breakdown.

"…How will you help me to…become strong at heart?" Kara asked quietly.

"By lending you my own strength," Yusei replied. "Then your heart will learn what it needs to know to become stronger, and in time, your heart will be like mine."

"And how will you-?"

Kara couldn't get the question out before her lips were met with his. This was not the first time he had locked lips with her, though it was the first since that night of passion they had sworn to forget but couldn't. His mouth was so smooth and gentle against hers, so kind just like he was…Being only human, she could not stop herself from responding to him in the same manner. Her heart throbbed, warning her that if she continued this, she would only end up hurt and hurting her best friend. But Yusei's strength flowed through him into her, drowning out her heart with its own power and reminding her that she could be strong if she would only try. So she ignored her heart's call of pain and gave into her held-back feelings, granting him entrance to her mouth with little resistance as their gentle kiss turned into something more.

They only broke apart when the need for air overrode every other need. Kara's eyes were still full of tears, but their flow had slowed enough that it wouldn't be long until she ceased her crying. Yusei removed his gloves and wiped her tears from her eyes with his surprisingly gentle hands, not wanting to see any signs of her sadness anymore. She couldn't stop staring into his beautiful blue eyes, still wondering in the back of her mind why he would love someone like her and how she could have been blessed enough to meet someone like him. Her heart felt a little stronger from their embrace…But now she couldn't help but wonder if in lending her his strength his heart had become weaker. She rested her palm against his chest again only to find his heart was as strong as ever. It seemed that nothing could weaken it, that it would remain strong against all things.

"You can feel it better this way," Yusei murmured, pulling her hand away for a moment, just long enough for him to take his shirt off so nothing was between her hand and his bare chest any longer.

She blushed slightly as she stared at his chest, feeling strange for seeing him topless like this. Like her, he hated to expose himself to anyone, preferring to be conservative. Yet he was not acting like himself now, lost in the need to help her and clouded by the emotions he was feeling. She could see them all in his beautiful blue eyes. His love for her was making him do things he would never do otherwise.

Love was intoxicating and stronger than any drug.

"…Does my heart…seem stronger to you…?" Kara asked, taking his hand with her free one and resting it right above her heart so he could feel its beating just as she could feel his. She worried that it might still feel so weak to him, that he would be disappointed when he felt the fiery undertones of its song, and it frightened her to think she might let him down now. She was now also in the thralls of her emotions, a state where she was her most vulnerable.

A small smile came onto Yusei's face. "It still has ways to go, but it is stronger."

Kara blinked. "…R-Really?"

He nodded. "If you keep believing in yourself, Kara, you will become strong."

Kara couldn't stop herself from wrapping her arms tightly around Yusei happy as she was to hear those words. The tears that fell from her eyes now were no longer a result of her misery. They were of happiness, the best kind of tears in existence. These were the tears he would rather be in her eyes, not those other kind.

"Thank you, Yusei," she whispered, and she meant it wholeheartedly.

* * *

><p><em>AN: This was longer than I intended it to be, but I believe it was worth it. The whole scene with Kara and Yusei was kinda out there. Still, I liked writing it despite its dark undertones. What did you think of this chapter? Please tell me without flaming or being rude or anything like that. Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!_


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: I'm not sure how hopeless this story is, but for those of you that read it, I will continue to write it. Here we go. Please read on and enjoy, my friends._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 7<span>

Crow stood awkwardly beside Akiza in front of the door of the house that belonged to Carrie. Just on the other side was nearly twenty of the blonde woman's friends and family members, none of whom knew what had happened to their beloved friend since she had gone upstairs. For all they knew, she was still up in her room avoiding them for reasons the blonde would not tell the people from the future. It was bad enough these two had to tell them she was attacked. What made it worse was they also had to explain how the attacker was from the future and so were they without having Carrie's friends freak out.

_Easier said than done, _the orange-haired man thought bitterly as Akiza reached up to knock on the door.

"How are they ever going to believe us?" Akiza wondered aloud after finishing her tapping on the wood.

"Well, from what I can gather, these people aren't unused to experiencing things outside the norm. Carrie's dropped some hints about events in her life that weren't exactly ordinary, not to mention Mirage. Also, Kara seemed to know some things about what this lady and her friends went through, and it didn't sound like something someone goes through usually, either. I think they'll be more understanding than we're giving them credit for," Crow remarked. He shook his head. "Man, I say too much and it makes little sense!"

Akiza smiled. "Actually, it makes more sense than you think. Though you definitely could have shortened it…"

The front door opened then to reveal a dark-haired, pink-eyed girl in her mid-teens who bore some resemblance to Carrie. The only logical conclusion was this chick had some shared blood with the blonde woman across the street, though how they might be related was still very much unknown to the duo from the future. She looked at the pair with untrusting eyes and curiosity just hidden beneath that distrust.

"Whatever you're selling, we're not interested," she stated bluntly. Before they could speak, she continued, "You're not carrying anything, so I suppose you're not salesmen. Who are you and what do you want? Talk quickly or I might lose interest and slam this door in your face."

"There's no need for threats, little girl. We're here on peaceful matters. My name is Akiza Izinski and this is Crow Hogan. We need to speak with you and the other people in this house about the safety of your friend Carrie West. It is urgent," the red-haired girl told her.

The dark-haired girl snorted. "_Right_. My sister is in danger. I _so_ believe you about that, Not! You guys are liars and you probably came here to rob the place! Carrie's up in her room hanging out alone cuz we irritated her, not in danger elsewhere! Wherever the hell you got your material, it's pure crap! Now get off my lawn before I take matters into my own hands and kick your asses here and now! Then we'll see who's really in danger, won't we?"

"Calm down, short stuff. We're not here to rob you or cause trouble," Crow insisted calmly, knowing Akiza would probably get annoyed by the girl's foul language and not respond well. "Now look, if you don't believe us about Carrie, just go up to her room to see if she's there. I bet you anything she's not because I just saw her over in that." He gestured back towards the old music hall from which he and Akiza had come. Having caught the pink-eyed teen's attention, he continued. "She came out here, sensing she was in danger with help from Mirage, to keep the rest of you from getting hurt. Then a chick by the name of Haruka engaged her in a battle of magic, in which Mirage was dominating, but then Mirage got distracted and Haruka managed to land a blow on Carrie before getting away. We took her into that building to keep her safe until she could recover enough to protect herself, and then we decided to bring you guys over to her."

"When the hell did that piece of shit get over there? " the teen asked before looking back at the people in front of her. "And how could you possibly know about Mirage? You're not friends with Carrie, and only her friends and former enemies know about her dark spirit. So either you're new enemies or new friends."

"We're not her friends or her enemies. We're simply trying to protect her from a vengeful lady that seeks her life," Akiza stated.

The girl sighed. "Fine. I'll go see if you're telling the truth. You two can come in, but don't get any ideas of thievery. I'm far from the only one in here that could kick your ass, so consider yourselves warned."

She moved aside to let the older people in, though Crow realized she must be about the same age as Akiza despite their height difference. When asked what they should call her, the girl rudely introduced herself as Jessica West before shouting into the other room for the people inside to watch "these possible crooks," adding, "the guy with face tattoos looks tricky." This offended Crow slightly; as if he would ever get tattoos on his face. Those were his criminal marks that he had no choice but to receive, but such marks had not been used in this time, so of course no one would know what they were. They would only think of them as body ink and nothing could change that. Having nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, Crow and Akiza entered the living room full of Carrie's friends.

What a mixed group this was.

Three of the people present were clearly from Egypt as they had the trademark complexion and dress of the people from that place. Only the youngest of the three, a man with light blonde hair and lavender eyes, dressed differently, but his golden jewelry made it obvious. Then there were four people with gray skin and some bandages visible here and there. Crow could have sworn they were mummies, but then mummies only came back to life in the movies. Surely there was a better explanation for how they looked than their being mummies…

A few familiar faces were in the crowd, identifiable only because of their history-making dueling skills. Crow recognized Yugi Muto, the original King of Games, and his very strange spiky hairstyle made of three different colors. Then there was the less famous blonde Joey Wheeler who always managed to make it into the finals of tournaments but never make it to the very top. Mai Valentine, the well-endowed blonde with violet eyes and a killer Harpie deck, was well-known for her skills with Winged Beasts even in the future. Fluffy-haired Mokuba Kaiba had made his name by becoming co-CEO of Kaiba Corp. with his brother Seto. The black-haired green-eyed Duke Devlin was in the record book for incorporating Duel Monsters into a dice game. Beautiful Alyssa Pegasus, niece of Maximillion Pegasus and future wife of Seto Kaiba, was known for merging Industrial Illusions with Kaiba Corp. and having a few card tricks of her own despite never participating in any tournaments due to the unfair advantage of living with the creator of Duel Monsters.

Other than these people, no one else was a standout. Akiza and Crow were standing in a room with a bunch of strangers, feeling pretty awkward. How were they going to ever convince all these people that Carrie was in danger from a future threat that had a beef with her great-granddaughter without sounding crazy? Surely these people would see them as mad no matter what they said. Crow recoiled from the thought of looking insane in front of the first King of Games. That would just be the lowest of blows.

Alyssa took one look at them and snorted. "Jessie was worried about _these_ people? Ha! They don't look like they could hurt a fly, let alone any of us! That shorty with fluffy orange hair…He just looks like a clown! And don't get me started on _her_!"

Akiza tensed up, suppressing anger from Alyssa's rude comments. It was obvious where Amyra inherited her rude behavior from, and painful as well. Crow was a bit irritated by her remark of him looking clownish, but someone had to remain civil here, so he let it roll right off his shoulders. It wasn't as easy to do as one might think—he had tried this approach several times before with Jack and failed every time—but with strangers it was manageable.

"Come on, Alyssa. Don't you think you're being a little mean? You don't even know these people and yet you're judging them. That's rude," a brown-haired blue-eyed woman remarked.

"Tea, look who you're talking to. Alyssa doesn't think anything is wrong or mean unless it's an injustice inflicted upon her," a brunette man with brown eyes said in a teasing tone as he looked at his wealthy friend.

"You guys are mean! What I said wasn't rude at all! It was…just a brutally honest statement," Alyssa claimed, pouting.

"Hi, my name is Serenity," an auburn-haired brown-eyed girl about the same age as Jessica and Akiza introduced, not afraid or rude as she approached the duo from the future. "Don't mind the behavior of the people in this room. They're a bit sugar-high from drinking too much hot chocolate. What are your names?"

"I'm Akiza," the red-haired girl said.

"Name's Crow," the orange-haired man muttered, wishing to have this ordeal over with already so he could get back to Kahlan.

"It's nice to meet you," Serenity commented with a bright smile. "I hope Jessie's wrong about you guys. You seem like nice people and I bet we could be friends someday."

"Holy freaking shit!" Jessica boomed from upstairs, thundering down the steps with a worried expression plastered to her face. "Carrie's gone! Carrie's missing! Carrie's in danger and we have no freaking clue where she is! Damn, damn, damn! Why the hell did we let her out of our sight knowing her record for getting into trouble? Whose bright idea was it to leave her alone in her room?"

A few people glanced over at the gray-skinned man with blue eyes, but the guy paid no attention to their stares.

Jessica pointed an accusing finger at Akiza and Crow. "You knew she was missing! That means one of two things…Either you kidnapped her yourselves or you helped someone else kidnap her! You two had better start talking or else we're gonna have a damn serious problem! So talk!"

Akiza sighed. "Were you even listening when Crow was talking earlier? He told you what happened with Carrie. Mirage sensed that a woman named Haruka wanted to hurt Carrie, so she left to keep you guys safe from harm and was attacked. Mirage engaged Haruka in battle and was dominating, but became distracted for a moment and Haruka managed to land one attack and got away. We took her over to that music hall across the street where she is now recovering from the attack. We did not kidnap her or harm her, just as Crow already told you."

"There's no music hall across the street," Joey said, standing and moving aside the curtains to look for himself. "See, I-Wait. When the hell did _that_ get over there?"

"Can we trust you all as friends of Carrie not to overreact to what we're about to tell you?" Crow asked after everyone in the room looked out to see the music hall.

"Well, whatever it is, I doubt it's as weird as half the things we've gone through already. And how much weirder can it get beyond a magically appearing ancient music hall and a magic lady coming to kill Carrie? Whatever you're about to say, we can handle it," Yugi told him.

"You'll have to tell us about some of that weird stuff you've gone through sometime so we can see who's experienced stranger," Crow remarked with a small smile. "All right… Here we go. That music hall didn't just appear out of nowhere. Haruka brought it here, along with me and Akiza and a handful of others. She's intent on killing Carrie with her sorcery powers and forcing us to watch. The reason behind her wanting to end your friend's life is…Well, she wants to prevent someone from being created. This someone is Carrie's great-granddaughter…And let's just say this great-granddaughter did some things that may have done some serious damage to Haruka's life."

"Wait…Are you saying that she used her sorcery to move herself, that building, and you guys through time just to stop her life from being ruined by Carrie's descendant?" a white-haired man with a British accent inquired.

"Bakura, I believe that is what he's saying," Duke agreed.

"Huh. That is pretty weird," the lavender-eyed Egyptian said, but no one seemed all that shocked that people had gone through time.

"…Why aren't you guys freaking out?" Akiza wanted to know, puzzled.

"Time-travel isn't all that out there, especially compared with some of the things we've seen," Joey boasted. "See those guys in bandages? They're mummies from five thousand years ago brought back to life to protect their mistress reborn for the sixth time. Ja-Kal, Armon, Rath, and Nefer-Tina are Carrie's living dead Guardians."

"You mean…They're mummies alive? Wow…Didn't see that one coming," Crow grumbled.

"Yes. Well, that's just scraping the tip of the iceberg. See that pendant hanging from Bakura's neck? That harbors an evil spirit from the same time period that the mummies come from that wants to destroy the world. He can take over at any moment, really, but we can keep 'em down," Mai told him. "Not only that, but there are six other Items just like it, only they don't hold evil spirits in them. They're collectively referred to as the Millennium Items. Carrie owns five of them, Bakura has one, and this other guy has the last. They caused us all a bunch of problems over the past couple of years; they're pretty powerful for human-made junk."

"What do you expect? They were made by Egyptians," the Egyptian woman stated.

"We can discuss all of this at some other time. We need to get to Carrie so we can protect her from this maniac sorceress that wants to kill her just to stop her descendant from being born!" Jessica exclaimed, jumping up and down as she couldn't stand still.

"She's right. We should return to the others before something happens," Akiza concurred with a glance at Crow. "Haruka has been unpredictable ever since she first attacked Kara. Even though she was defeated by Mirage, I doubt she'll stay down for long. She's probably watching, waiting for the right moment to strike. We can't give her that chance. There's strength in numbers."

"Right. Let's get going then," Crow said.

"Give us a moment to bundle up and we'll be right after you," Tea remarked.

Akiza and Crow stepped outside while the others made for their winter gear, feeling relieved that it hadn't taken as long as they thought it would to convince these people about Carrie's predicament sent from the future. Even though some were not all that likeable, like Alyssa, Crow felt that with these people on their side, Haruka's chances of killing anyone would greatly diminish. That meant Kara would be safe, but more importantly, Kahlan would be safe. Then as a whole from the present and the future, they could figure out what to do about that sorceress to take her down. Her claim that Carrie would be dead by Christmas morning, however unlikely it sounded now, still hung in the air, reminding him of the threat a user of magic really could be.

Then, seemingly from out of nowhere, a shadowy mist appeared around the house, blocking out the sun. Akiza and Crow moved so they were standing back to back, each resting a hand on the top card in their duel disks as their arms lit up with the Mark of the Dragon. Akiza could summon Duel Monsters without needing her Signer powers, but Crow was not so fortunate. They looked out into the dark mist, wondering what was about to happen and waiting for it to do so already. Hopefully the others would be out here soon to offer backup just in case things went awry…

Shadow creatures emerged from the mist, having the silhouettes of certain Duel Monsters but no identifying characteristics whatsoever. Some were monstrous in size while others were small. Still, they were meant to attack the duo and destroy them, and perhaps then they would destroy those that were inside the house to prevent Carrie from receiving the protection she needed to escape death at Haruka's hand. Crow knew what Haruka was pulling here and didn't like it one bit. Why couldn't that vengeful lady just leave them alone? They hadn't done a thing to her, and what Kara did was when she was weak and unable to think straight. Wasn't all this a bit much, even in the name of revenge?

As the shadow creatures began their attack, Akiza and Crow pulled the top card from the decks and summoned their strongest Monsters. Black Rose Dragon whipped out at the creatures with her thorny vines, baring her fangs and daring them to approach her mistress. Black-Winged Dragon shot feathers out of his wings at the enemy, destroying them upon impact. The Dragons continued to fight against the shadows, obliterating creature after creature successfully. But they kept re-spawning, kept coming back no matter how many times they were destroyed. They were coming closer with every re-spawn. Soon the Dragons and the duelists would be encircled with no way out because of this dark mist and the dark creatures it created.

Akiza summoned backup in hopes it might improve the odds, bringing to the field Rose Tentacles and Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis in order to give support to Black Rose Dragon. Crow followed her example by bringing out Blackwing-Aurora the Northern Lights and Blackwing-Gale the Whirlwind. The additional Monsters helped to destroy the shadow creatures faster, but did nothing to increase the gap between the opposing forces; rather, it just made the enemy re-spawn faster and closer. Crow swore, wondering how the hell they would get out of this mess. Was it even possible to escape such a perilous situation?

The shadow creatures came closer and closer, forcing the duelists and their smaller Monsters to have their backs against the Signer Dragons. The option of flying out of there was taken from them by the mist that surrounded them—if the group tried to fly through it, there was no telling what might happen. Crow rested his head on the side of Black-Winged Dragon, regretting that his life would end this way and that he wouldn't be able to protect Kahlan anymore. He imagined how heartbroken she would be when she found out and the very thought of her misery made his heart ache. His friends would also be hurting over his death as well as that of Akiza. She was lucky no one loved her like Kahlan loved him, though…The pain left by death on one who loved the deceased with all their heart was one she would not inflict. He would not be that fortunate.

_Goodbye, Kay. I love you, _Crow thought morosely as a few tears fell out of his gray eyes.

Suddenly, a bright illumination invaded the darkness of the mist, stopping the shadow creatures in their tracks. Lyna the Light Charmer, accompanied by her familiar Happy Lover, used her mastery of light to drive the mist away. Without it, the shadow creatures couldn't come back once destroyed. Crow spared a glance over at the Spellcaster, wondering where she had come from. He found his answer as sweet little Serenity emerged from the dissipating mist with St. Joan at her right and her other Charmers at her left. Dharc the Dark Charmer was absorbing the mist into his staff, showing that Lyna was not the only one helping out with their situation. Joey stood behind them all, ready to step in if the auburn-haired girl needed it. But she obviously could handle herself.

Gale the Whirlwind destroyed the last of the shadow creatures in a whirl of feathers, freeing them from Haruka's magic and sparing their lives. Crow let out the breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding, more than relieved to have survived that even though it had been through the help of a teenage girl he just met. Gale perched itself on his shoulder and Aurora landed on Black-Winged Dragon's back while Rose Tentacles swung its vines around in boredom and Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis just sat there. The others from inside the house rushed out now that the danger had passed with their duel disks strapped to their wrists and decks at the ready. Having seen what Haruka could do at a moment's notice, they were no longer fooling around. It was time to get real serious.

Not even bothering to dismiss their Duel Monsters, Akiza and Crow led the way back to the music hall, wondering what Haruka would do next.

* * *

><p>"Do you think I was hard on Kara?" Carrie asked, glancing at Dark Magician Lady and Yami in turn, her conversation with Yusei running through her mind for the umpteenth time and making her feel guiltier by the minute.<p>

"Well, not really to her face. But once she was out of the room and you were alone with Yusei…Yeah, you kinda were," Dark Magician Lady admitted. "I mean, you said she was weak and a brat that couldn't handle mistakes. You even claimed she wasn't related to you despite the obvious facts. You cannot deny she looks a little like you and the Pharaoh. I can tell that even without the use of my magic." She twirled her staff around in her hands nervously, wondering if she should continue to speak. "Carrie, Kara Muto is your great-granddaughter. You're lucky to even have met her at all. You shouldn't have been so quick to judge her. You've just met her and know next to nothing about her. Can't you at least try to consider her feelings?"

Carrie sighed. "…Do you agree with her, Yami?"

The spiky-haired spirit nodded once. "It is unfair to pass judgment on someone you don't know. It is human nature to do so, it's true, but to do so cruelly is unacceptable." His eyes flittered over to the door as if he could see Yusei standing there again. "…Perhaps you are not the only one with a rocky past. Perhaps hers was worse than yours, as Yusei seemed to suggest."

The blonde woman sighed again. "…You're right. You're both right. I guess…I guess I was just irritated from seeing her give up like that. And of course there's the whole someone's-trying-to-kill-me thing that I have to deal with. That's been getting on my nerves quite a bit."

**Don't forget that you're pregnant and have raging hormones that make you a bitch at random moments, **Mirage piped in.

"That too," Carrie agreed. "…Do you think they'll ever forgive me?"

"Perhaps. All wounds heal in time, and they don't strike me as the type to hold grudges. Well…at least Yusei doesn't," Yami told her. "If you explain everything to them, I'm sure they'd understand. You could even tell them what you went through that made you think anyone could overcome their past, no matter how terrible. If you're fortunate enough, Kara may be willing to reveal some of her past to you so you can decide if she has had it worse. Only opening up can really solve this problem between you and our descendant."

"Your descendant? How can she be your great-granddaughter if she bears Yugi's last name? I mean, sure, she looks somewhat like you, but that color scheme isn't uniquely yours, Pharaoh. How do we know she's yours?" Dark Magician Lady asked.

"Because I would never give myself up to any other man, no matter what," Carrie replied.

Yami smiled. "That, and Yugi is only your best friend. Perhaps to avoid having to explain our son's heritage, you claimed him to be Yugi's child and named him accordingly. That, or Kara's mother married our grandson. That question cannot be answered by us. You would have to ask Kara that one, or her sister Kahlan."

"To get back on the subject…Carrie, I have a request to make of you," Dark Magician Lady said, looking very serious even for her. "Will you try to make amends with Kara as soon as you can? Think before you answer. She made a mistake in her past that made Haruka resent her very existence and want you dead. She regrets what she did and is willing to give her life up to protect you. You are her role model; she has nothing but respect for you. You can't just cast that all aside like it's nothing. So will you call her here and apologize? Please?"

"…Okay. I will," Carrie murmured.

"No-no. You can't just say you will. You have to swear that you will apologize as soon as you can. Come on. Say it. Say 'I swear I will apologize to my great-granddaughter for rudely judging her as soon as I can.'"

The blond rolled her eyes. "I swear I will apologize to my great-granddaughter for rudely judging her as soon as I can."

Dark Magician Lady beamed. "Good! I'll go get her then so you can-!"

"Wait a second! I didn't agree to apologize now!" Carrie exclaimed.

"No, but you did swear you would apologize as soon as you could," Yami put in with a small smile. "You can now, can't you? It's not like you're going anywhere anytime soon, is it?"

"Yami! You're not helping!" Carrie snapped though she had a small smile on her face as well. "I…I can't face her now! She's probably with Yusei, and they're both probably so pissed at me for what I said…It's going to be so awkward! Not to mention how they're going to hate me and not believe a word I say…"

"Come on, Carrie. It won't be that bad," Dark Magician Lady assured her.

"How do you know?" Carrie wanted to know.

"I don't, but from what I do know, people are very forgiving. If Kara really is a descendant of you and the Pharaoh, then she'll find it in her heart to forgive you. Just have a little faith, my lady," Dark Magician Lady remarked.

Carrie sighed. "Fine. But you can't leave. I'd be left defenseless and Haruka could get me. Let me summon a different Monster to retrieve her, okay?" Dark Magician Lady and Yami nodded, and then she withdrew a card from her deck. It was Beast King Barbaros, one of her favorite and most powerful cards. He would be massive in the flesh and might scare those she wished to bring here. "On second thought, you can get her. Barbaros can stand watch while you're gone."

Dark Magician Lady nodded and took off as Carrie summoned the Beast with the head of a lion, the midsection of a biped, and the body of the rest of the lion. Barbaros always seemed like a weird creature, having six limbs when most only had four, but appearances mattered little when compared to how kickass his effect and attack strength were. He held his red lance at the ready, trotting back and forth in front of her like the sentinel he had become. Carrie passed the time by watching his tail twitch, trying to forget what was about to go down so she could have a little faith in herself and her descendant.

When several minutes had passed and no one had returned, she struck up a conversation with her sentinel. Beast King Barbaros wasn't usually a talker, but since Carrie hadn't summoned him in a long time, he felt somewhat compelled to respond to her questions. He told her how his kingdom in the Realm of the Duel Spirits was holding up, which it was doing very well indeed. His family was doing fine. His wife had just given birth to a litter of Beasts that would become a new breed of Duel Monsters to be summoned in this realm. However, despite all this good, there was also evil. The Winged Beasts were encroaching in their territory again, and their queen—Harpie Queen—was threatening to go to war if the Beasts and Beast-Warriors did not forfeit some of their land. Barbaros would not give into her demands, so it looked like a war would be on the horizon soon.

Carrie offered her condolences, but Barbaros shook them off with a vicious smile. Whenever there are no conflicts for Duel Monsters to be in, he said, life becomes boring. He welcomed the war with open arms, daring Harpie Queen and her feathery harlots to try and defeat his army. The way he reacted to the war made Carrie curious, but then, he was a Duel Monster. Duel Monsters' purpose was to fight. It would be no different here than it would be in his own realm. His kind just couldn't getting away from fighting. She apologized for pulling him into her own conflict, but he shrugged it off. He told her she was one of his better masters and he would gladly give his life to protect hers if it came down to it.

The door opened and Barbaros spun around, pointing his lance aggressively in that direction. Dark Magician Lady poked her head around the corner, assuring him everything was all right though she didn't enter the room until he had lowered his weapon. She floated in with Kara and Yusei following behind somewhat reluctantly. Carrie noted with curiosity that Kara looked like she had been crying but she no longer seemed upset. Yusei didn't look angry anymore, either, but he was good at keeping his emotions hidden. She couldn't know how he really felt about her unless she drew it out of him. In all honesty, she didn't want to know his feelings. It would only drive the wedge further between them.

"What do you want?" Yusei asked in a tight voice, the only sign that he was unhappy that Carrie had called Kara here with him.

She took a deep breath, accepting support from the spirit seated beside her, before forcing herself to meet his gaze. "I…I want to apologize for what passed between us before. You were right…It wasn't fair for me to say what I did about Kara when I don't know a thing about her. I was just irritated from having my life in danger and so many strangers forced upon me that I snapped…But it's no excuse." Her gaze flitted over to Kara's, and her descendant lowered her eyes. "Kara, I'm so sorry. It's nothing but words, but that is all I can offer. I don't expect you to forgive me anytime soon. I just wanted you and Yusei to know I regret insulting you in front of the others…or at all, really."

No one spoke, leaving Carrie to feel awkward and fidget in the silence. Dark Magician Lady looked around the room worriedly as Beast King Barbaros just stood still while looking for any sign of danger to fight off. Kara stood just as still with her eyes fixated on the floor, hands stuffed in her pants pockets. Yusei had his eyes on her, wanting to relieve her pain more than he had before, wishing he could take it all away.

Carrie closed her eyes. _Yami, what do I do now? I've apologized and look what happened. Nothing's changed. What should I do? What should I do?_

"Try opening up to them. Perhaps then they'll at least speak to you," Yami suggested.

The blonde woman took another deep breath, but did no open her eyes so she wouldn't have to see their reactions. "…You know, I had a hard past myself. It's part of the reason I believed you were weak, because I figured if I could overcome my past, anyone could overcome theirs. I believe my past to be the worst in the world, rivaled only by that of my sister's because she suffered much as I did."

"Kara knows most of your past. She's aware you were beaten by your father for most of your childhood," Yusei interjected.

"Yeah, but I'm sure there would be some things I wouldn't make common knowledge to my family. Everyone has their skeletons in the closet," Carrie remarked. "For instance, when I was on Duelist Kingdom, I was sexually assaulted and nearly raped by a man who had been trying to pull that for two years prior to that. Then I lost my soul for awhile at the hands of my uncle. I almost died with my best friend during the Battle City Tournament on several occasions because of a great evil. After that, I was beaten to near-death and raped-"

"You think that's bad? You think you had it hard?" Kara cut in, venom in her voice. "You have no fucking idea how hard life can be! You've always had your sister and never lost her! I lost mine when I was only seven! I thought she burned up in the house fire that claimed my home! I became addicted to crack, joined a gang, killed a few people, and then was abandoned by them when they were arrested! And that's not even the worst of the shit yet! You were sexually assaulted and raped? Ha! I can't even count how many times that's happened to me! People tried to kill me and I tried to end my own damn life so many times that my body's covered in scars! I've been all alone until I met Yusei! You've always had someone! You don't know anything, bitch, so don't you try relating to me cuz you fucking can't!"

Carrie was startled by all this information Kara had dropped on her all of a sudden. She had always believed her past to be the most terrible thing ever to happen to a single person her age, but her descendant had proven her wrong. Losing her sister, becoming addicted to drugs and a member of a gang, killing people only to be abandoned, and then to be raped so many times she couldn't count? This wasn't even taking into account the murder attempts or the suicide attempts that left scars on her body. How could Carrie have judged Kara so rashly? Any woman that had endured all of that and could still roll out of bed in the morning and hold her head high was definitely not weak. However, there was one aspect of Carrie's life that she doubted Kara could match.

"Okay…So we were both raped. I just have one question for you," Carrie said, opening her eyes and meeting Kara's green hostile glare with her calm yet determined one. "Were you raped by your own father on the night of your sister's birthday?"

The look that came onto the tri-color-haired woman's face answered her question. Kara and Yusei exchanged glances, obviously unsure how to respond to such a statement. This had been a secret Carrie was sure she would never tell her child or her grandchildren or even her great-grandchildren; it would be something she would take with her to her grave. But she had to regain Kara's trust, and the only way to do that was to connect with her somehow and show her they had both suffered.

"Yeah. Carl West, my so-called father, did that to me," Carrie murmured as her gaze turned down to her hands and the memory of that night flashed through her mind. "…He …He managed to escape from prison in America, the place Jessie and I had put him after he tried to kill her. Somehow…He made it over here…and found out where I lived. He caught me in a dark alley while I was on my way to a party at Kaiba's to celebrate the Battle City Tournament Finals. I…I…I…couldn't fight him off. He…He was always so imposing…I could never fight him except for that day he tried to kill Jessie…He swore he'd make me regret that day…" Carrie swallowed hard, trying not to let herself cry over this for the zillionth time despite her already breaking voice. "…He beat me worse than ever before…But he wouldn't…he wouldn't kill me. He wanted me to live and suffer with the memory forever…And to destroy me further…he raped me. It…It wasn't for sexual reasons…He…only did it for the violence, and to shatter my mind…"

"Good Kami, woman. How are you still sane?" Kara demanded.

Carrie flashed her a grim smile. "For the longest time…I wasn't. When I revived in a hospital a month or so later…I was so stricken with grief that I gave myself over to Mirage. She killed that bastard and made him suffer for all of eternity, a fate too good for him…But I cannot ask for more in that case. Then…Once I forced myself to remember Mirage was not altogether good…I brought back my first life to take my place and face the world for me while I dealt with my emotions. It backfired…Two people with the same soul cannot…live in the same time…And since she was the stronger of us, she accidentally stole my life energy from me so I could not deal with the situation…I nearly died then and would have died had she not forfeited her life for me. There was even a period of time where I was so screwed up…I turned to darkness and Mirage was the good one of us." Carrie laughed without humor at the irony of it. "…It was only after that darkness was defeated…that I became truly sane again."

"…I…I honestly had no idea about this," Kara admitted. "…I know that I was broken whenever I was assaulted, but…Good Kami, I could never have lived with myself if my father did that to me…I'm lucky I never met mine. But…But you knew the kind side of your father for seven years…What torture it must have been. How could I not have known this?"

"Some of what I just told you…Not even my friends know of it. The whole instance when I resurrected my first life to replace me is known only by a handful. Everyone else just thinks it was me and have no idea that I was almost lost to them," Carrie told her. "It's better if they never know of it, even after all this time."

Yusei sighed, drawing attention to himself, and Carrie met his eyes once again. "With a burden like that on your shoulders, I suppose I can see why you would believe your past to be the most painful imaginable. How you can even manage to hold your head up and smile after going through something that terrible is beyond me. To have overcome a past with such a terrible experience, it's easy to see where you would gain the belief that anyone should be able to do the same with their own past." He glanced over at Kara with sadness. "…But as I'm sure you've realized, that is not so simple for everyone."

Carrie nodded. "From the little Kara has revealed to me, I know she cannot overcome her past so easily. If the rest of her life has been full of hardships such as those, I wonder at how she remains so strong. If I were in her shoes, I would have broken long ago. If she manages to conquer even a quarter of her painful past, it will be a miracle and more than I could do in her place."

Kara gave a wan smile. "…That means a lot coming from you, Carrie. Thank you…for understanding me and calling me strong."

"You don't have to thank me for speaking the truth. You are strong, and if you surround yourself with friends like Yusei, you will only become stronger," Carrie commented.

"Uh…Not to ruin this bonding moment, but I sense something you might want to know," Dark Magician Lady put in, floating above their heads as she looked towards the door. "Carrie, your friends are coming here with two of the people from the future." Her brow furrowed. "But they have summoned several of my kind."

"Why would that be?" Carrie asked at the same time that Yami did, but he mostly went unheard because only she and the Duel Monsters could see him.

Barbaros answered for his fellow Duel Monster. "Haruka must have attacked them."

"Not only attacked, but is currently attacking," Dark Magician Lady corrected. "The group makes a little progress from the house to this music hall only to have to face another of her obstacles. She's trying to keep the two groups from meeting as the combined power will be much more difficult for her to combat."

"Who are the people from our time out there?" Kara demanded.

"Umm…I don't know their names, but I can tell you what they look like. One's a lady with red hair that's longer in the front than the back and she's taller than her traveling companion and her eyes are some shade of brown," Dark Magician Lady described. "The other is a short guy with fluffy orange hair and yellow markings on his face and gray eyes. Does that ring any bells or…?"

"Akiza and Crow went out there? Damn it!" Kara swore. "If anything happens to Crow, Kay is gonna be so messed up! And Akiza's been through enough shit as it is! Yusei, we've got to go out there and back them up! If anything happens to those two at Haruka's hand, I'll never forgive myself!"

Yusei understood her urgency and pulled out his deck in preparation for the battle. Kara followed his example, but before they could leave, Carrie spoke up.

"I'm coming, too," she said.

"You're the one Haruka wants to kill. It's not safe for you to come," Yusei remarked.

"She may want me dead, but she wants to hurt Kara and anyone that has ever known the two of us. And right now, she's threatening the lives of my friends and my little sister. I can't just sit idly by while she terrorizes them like this. I want to take a stand against her, because she obviously didn't learn her lesson when she lost to Mirage," Carrie stated. "Don't worry about me. I've recovered from using my energy to bring your dueling junk through time and I can handle myself. I'm not gonna die today, or anytime soon for that matter."

"Are you sure about this, Carrie?" Yami asked as his girlfriend stood up from the couch and wobbled a bit.

_Yes, _she replied as she steadied herself. _And I promise to be careful. I won't put our son in unnecessary danger. We'll be fine._

"Dark Magician Lady. Beast King Barbaros. Are you ready to fight?" Carrie inquired of her Duel Monsters, moving over to the side of the larger of the two.

The Spellcaster nodded and the Beast King growled. Without any sign of hesitation, the blonde climbed onto Barbaros' back, knowing he could move faster than she could ever hope to and that meant she would arrive at the battle quicker. She gestured for Yusei and Kara to do the same, and though they hesitated, they did climb up after her. Kara sat behind Carrie with Yusei behind her. The blonde woman urged them to hold on, wrapping her own arms around Barbaros' torso, just before the Beast King took off at top speed towards the outside world. Dark Magician Lady followed above them just as quickly, using her magic to open any doors and move any object that got in the way. Kara gripped Carrie tightly to avoid falling off and the blonde could imagine Yusei was holding her great-granddaughter just as tightly.

Thus they charged towards battle, with the only fear being the fear of not making it there in time or falling off before they arrived.

* * *

><p><em>AN: What a lengthy chapter with only a little bit of action. Whatever. What did you think of this chapter? Please tell me without being rude. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day._


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Sorry for not updating sooner. Been busy, you know. Well anyway, here's the next chapter. Please read on and enjoy._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 8<span>

Yugi wasn't sure how they were going to survive to help Carrie, but he knew they would pull through somehow and that was probably the only reason he kept fighting.

Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, Magician of Black Chaos, and Black Luster Soldier stood around him as they fought off the dark creatures being conjured continuously out of thin air about him and his friends. The first time they had come, a dark fog had been the reason for their existence. That means had been extinguished by the combined might of Lyna the Light Charmer and Dharc the Dark Charmer, but it proved to be only a temporary setback. Haruka had power beyond their comprehension, having mastered the art of sorcery long ago, and therefore could pull tricks no human without magic could see coming. It was only through the help of his Duel Monsters that Yugi had not been destroyed as of yet.

"Everyone off the ground!" Jessica ordered as a giant crater began to create itself in the middle of the road just beneath her feet. Shining Angel was quick to lift her and Mokuba to safety as Wingweaver and Splendid Venus continued their attacks on the shadow-Monsters threatening their lives.

The others had their Duel Monsters lift them off the ground as well before they could be engulfed by the abyss below. Yugi worried about the red-haired lady from the future's Monsters since they were Plants, but that problem was eradicated as Akiza reluctantly dismissed Rose Tentacles and Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis to save herself and them the pain of being destroyed. All the other Duel Monsters took to the sky as well as the crater enlarged to engulf the entire width of the road between Carrie's home and the music hall. Still the attacks of the silhouetted Duel Monsters continued. Yugi wondered how they were being summoned so rapidly.

"We need to find a way to cut off her connection to the dark souls she's using to fuel her spells!" Serenity declared over the noise of the battle, being held in the air by an orb of wind created by Wynn the Wind Charmer. "That's the only way we'll escape this place alive and in one piece!"

"Easier said than done! If you haven't noticed, she's not exactly leaving any openings for us, and she's not showing her face, either!" Alyssa shouted from Soul Tiger's back as Performance of Sword and Gemini Elf protected her.

"Yeah, how are we supposed to stop her magic if we don't know where she is?" Tea demanded from the arms of Yugi's Dark Magician Girl.

"I don't know! All I know is Dharc and Lyna cannot help us here! The power of the dark souls combined with the dark magic is too much for them!" Serenity admitted.

"Well, we can't keep fighting like this! We don't have the stamina!" Duke complained, being held up by one of his Duel Monsters with a name Yugi couldn't quite remember at the moment.

"That's her plan! She wants to weaken us and then move in for the kill!" Mai predicted from upon her Harpie's Pet Dragon with her Harpies flying about her protectively.

"Well, it's working!" Tristan remarked, sitting behind Joey on Red Eyes Black Dragon because he was no duelist.

"Hey, don't give up! We can't let her win cuz that means she'll go after Carrie! Our friend is in trouble, and we gotta be there to help her! So I don't know bout the rest of ya, but I'm not gonna die here! I'm gonna keep on fightin' til Carrie is safe again and this big bad is beaten bad!" Joey declared proudly, grinning despite suffering the pain of his Flame Swordsman and Gearfried the Iron Knight being attacked.

"For Carrie!" the four mummy Guardians chanted, raising their weapons into the air as they rode on their own Duel Monsters.

_That's right. This is all for her, _Yugi thought with a small, grim smile. _She has done so much for us already despite being so broken. She is a good person and my best friend carrying the child of my incarnation. We can't let this person hurt her because of something that hasn't happened yet. Haruka cannot win here. We'll all keep fighting until we've got nothing left. _He looked upon the faces of all those gathered here and knew it to be true. _She won't reach Carrie until the last of us falls. I'll gladly give my life to keep her safe._

Ishizu cried out suddenly, drawing attention to herself from the back of one of her Duel Monsters where she was with Marik and Odion. She pointed towards the music hall where something was emerging. Yugi realized it was a Duel Monster—Beast King Barbaros to be exact—and that he was not alone. Flying in front of him was Dark Magician Lady, looking determined and ready to kick some butt. On the Beast-Warrior's back were three people, one of which he recognized. His heart ached upon seeing her while his stomach started doing somersaults. He hadn't wanted her to come out here during this fight; it was her life Haruka wanted to end more than any other. But he should have known she wouldn't stay put once she realized what was going on outside. Her heart was too big for that, and she would throw herself in harm's way in a heartbeat to save her friends regardless of her condition.

_Yami, why the hell are you letting her do this? She's pregnant, and if she dies so does the child inside! _Yugi thought bitterly. Then he sighed mentally and reluctantly admitted_, You probably couldn't stop her…Once her mind is set on something, there's no changing it. I just hope she doesn't do anything stupid. If she does, it won't just be her that will pay the ultimate price. _Noticing the hair coloring of the woman behind Carrie, he realized she must be the great-granddaughter that Crow and Akiza had mentioned, the one that Haruka wanted to destroy by killing Carrie. _Everyone from our time as well as the future will suffer if anything happens to Carrie. That woman will cease to exist, and perhaps those she's associated with won't ever remember her, but they will still pay a great price. And as for us…Well, we'll remember…and that is a pain I don't want to have to face._

The man and woman behind Carrie jumped off of Beast King Barbaros as he came to a stop at the edge of the abysmal crater, duel disks held at the ready. Carrie stood up upon the mighty Beast King's back, just as ready to launch her attacks on the unseen enemy. Her friends were shouting for her to leave, but Yugi found he could not join them. Why bother? She was already out here—Haruka had a good shot of destroying her regardless of her net move—and Carrie wasn't one to back away from a fight. She ignored them all and summoned three additional Monsters to the battlefield: Dark Magician Dragon Warrior, Gyakutenno Megami, and Uria, Lord of Searing Flames. The great crimson dragon roared, shaking the earth with his strength and sent many of the shadow-Monsters to their doom without using any of his real attacks just yet.

"Carrie! Don't be stupid! We don't need your help!" Jessica screamed, trying to hide her jealousy for how easily Uria had taken out a handful of the enemy while her Fairies were having a much harder time.

Many of the others joined in, but Yugi knew their pleas fell on deaf ears. Carrie was focused on protecting her loved ones now; nothing they said would change her mind. The dark-haired man with blue eyes followed her example by summoning Stardust Dragon, Junk Warrior, and Junk Destroyer, three Duel Monsters that Yugi had never heard of before. Carrie's descendant then brought forth Master Hyperion, The Agent of Creation-Venus, and Consecrated Light, and the game expert could only recognize the second one. These people were obviously using cards from the future just like Crow and Akiza. The woman used Agent Venus's effect to bring a ton of Mystical Shine Balls into the mix, a move that seemed stupid considering how weak they were, but perhaps things weren't always how they appeared.

"What the hell is that chick doing? Shine Balls are useless!" Marik exclaimed.

"She must not have inherited Carrie's brains if she thinks that's a good move," Duke muttered.

"You watch your mouths! Kara is not an idiot!" Crow snapped, coming to his friend's defense. "Don't you see what's going on here? We're trapped in darkness and fighting off Dark Monsters! And how do you fight darkness? With light! That's why she summoned all those Light Monsters!"

"Oh," was the general response of those in the sky.

"Yeah, but there's more to it than that," Akiza observed. "See that pink orb, Consecrated Light? It serves more purpose than those other Fairies. Its effect in the game pretty much keeps Dark Monsters at bay until it's destroyed, which is impressive for a Duel Monster without any attack or defense. I bet it can do some good here as well even without this being a duel. It might even prove to be more useful that her Master Hyperion or our Signer Dragons, or even Carrie's Sacred Beast."

"Really? I didn't know Fairies could be that powerful," Ryo commented from his spot upon Mako's Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness with the fisherman.

"They won't become that powerful for about another sixty years," Akiza admitted.

"And what about that big white dragon over there? What's so special about it?" Mako inquired.

"That's Yusei's top card, Stardust Dragon. Like my Black-Winged Dragon and Akiza's Black Rose Dragon, he's a Signer Dragon with powers beyond those of normal Duel Monsters. His power may even be rival to that of the Sacred Beasts and the Egyptian God Cards," Crow told him.

"I'll believe that when I see it," Mako grumbled.

"Consecrated Light, banish the darkness! Shed some light on this so we can see where the enemy hides!" Kara commanded suddenly. "The rest of you, keep her safe until she does what needs to be done!"

The dozens of Mystical Shine Balls surrounded the pink orb of light until she couldn't be seen or differentiated from the clear orbs. Agent Venus and Master Hyperion took up arms on opposite sides of the mass of light orbs, ready to take out anything that would threaten Consecrated Light. A bright pink illumination started to come from the mass as the Duel Monster began to work her magic. Apparently knowing what would happen if this continued, all of the shadow-Monsters in the air turned from attacking everyone's Duel Monsters to just attacking those Fairies. Master Hyperion was strong and Agent Venus wasn't too weak, but they couldn't take on this whole horde on their own.

Carrie's and Yusei's Duel Monsters quickly jumped into action, tearing apart the threat to Kara's summoned servants. The blonde leapt from Beast King Barbaros' back before he went into battle with his red lance blazing in the sky. Dark Magician Lady and Dark Magician Dragon Warrior were the only ones that stayed back because they were of the Dark-Attribute despite their good nature.

"Everyone! Get your Dark Monsters out of here! Only Light can help us now!" Carrie called to the others above. She glanced at the Charmers beside Serenity and added, "But keep Dharc out! He can work with the others to absorb the darkness! The others will just get in the way!"

"How will we keep from falling?" Duke asked like an idiot.

"Get on Uria! He's large enough for all of you, you dumbass!" Carrie snapped.

Following her commands, Yugi dismissed his Spellcasters after being placed on the back of the crimson dragon along with Tea. Most of the others joined him, having only had Dark Monsters out there in the battlefield. Crow remained in the air only because of Aurora being a Light-Attribute unlike the other Blackwings, for example. Joey came to stand next to Yugi since he had to dismiss Red Eyes, which meant Tristan had to come down as well. Uria's back became full of people because of Carrie's orders, but it was all right. Yugi could feel the darkness weakening without their Monsters to help fuel it as well as what Consecrated Light was doing within her protection of Mystical Shine Balls and what Dharc and Lyna were doing together. Carrie beckoned to her Dark Monsters to go to those Charmers to use their powers to increase the effectiveness of their magic, which they did in a heartbeat. Serenity's other Charmers teamed up with what remained of their fighting force to keep Consecrated Light safe. Seeing so much progress being made so quickly, Yugi hoped this would not be for nothing.

Consecrated Light's illumination became so bright that everything started to have a pink tint to it. Yugi felt the darkness—that invisible presence of Haruka—weakening as a result, and then a mass of dark purple appeared at the farthest reach of his vision. There was no explanation for that save one…

That was where Haruka was, or at the very least, where she was connected to the arts of sorcery and dark arts.

Spotting it for herself, Carrie pulled one last card from her deck and called it forth. A giant gold sphere appeared in the center of the sky above Uria, which Yugi knew could mean one thing. She recited the incantation necessary to bring him out of his sealed state and the dragon emerged from his shell.

"Winged Dragon of Ra, destroy Haruka now!" Carrie shouted.

The golden Egyptian God roared and a beam of pure light shot from his mouth, hitting home at that spot of darkness. A horrid scream tore through the area; there was only one person it could have come from. Though she did not make herself known, Yugi felt her leave and could not blame her for that. Being hit by the force of Ra was not a pleasant experience. Living through it was pretty painful.

Crisis averted. Everyone stopped worrying about dying or watching Carrie die and collapsed to catch their breaths. Carrie didn't let herself drop just yet. She put her Spellcasters to work repairing the crater with their magic to eliminate most evidence of what had just happened. Yugi had to keep himself from laughing too hard when he realized this might become some sort of YouTube sensation when someone posted it on the sight, and then there would be so many questions from eye witnesses…They would all be more famous than ever for the wrong reasons.

"Let's hurry in before she has a chance to recover," Odion advised.

* * *

><p>Once inside, introductions were made between the people of the present and the people of the future. Things were a bit weird when Tristan and Yusei and Bakura and Jack realized how similar their voices were to each other…among other reasons. Still, Kara assumed it could be worse. Everyone was getting along as best they could, considering their differences. Of course there was a bit of friction, but that was expected. If there wasn't any friction there'd be a problem.<p>

"Where's Seto Kaiba?" Amyra demanded, pushing through the crowd in search of someone who wasn't there.

"My brother had to work and couldn't be bothered to come hang out with the rest of us," Mokuba replied with a shrug. "Besides, he's no friend of Carrie's. He wouldn't come see her or her friends if she was dying…No pun intended."

"I wouldn't say that. We're…frenemies. You know, friends that are better being enemies," Carrie clarified.

Amyra pouted. "So I meet one half of the couple that made me whole but not the other? That's bullshit! I wanna meet my great-grandpa when he's attractive, not when he's all wrinkly and doesn't remember my name! Make him come here!"

"…Is she always like this?" Joey asked with a sweat-drop as Amyra continued to whine.

"Not always, but most of the time," Greiger reluctantly admitted.

"I'm gonna go find him if it's the last thing I do! And none of you can stop me!" Amyra declared, grabbing Greiger's arm and dragging him towards the door. "Come on, Greiger! Let's go to the Kaiba Corporation building and find my bastard great-grandpa!"

"Uh, that's probably not a good idea. Seto's not a big believer in magic or anything that can't be explained by normal means. He'll probably turn you away at the door…after thoroughly insulting you, of course," Alyssa warned with a scowl. "And don't you dare call him such a horrid word. You don't know the hell he's been through to get where he is now, and demeaning him because of his lineage is no way to go. Seto deserves better. I won't let you see him if you slander his name like that again."

Amyra responded by sticking her tongue out at Alyssa. Despite what Kara thought she might do, the purple-haired green-eyed girl did not retort with another insult about Seto Kaiba. She just remained silent, so the brown-haired green-eyed woman granted her the chance to reach out to the rich businessman. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed his number before leaving the room. Kara supposed she wanted to explain things to Kaiba before Amyra could sink her fangs into him. Alyssa was definitely more likeable than her descendant, though it was all too obvious where Amyra's immaturity came from.

While the groups mingled and Carrie rested in the other room under the watch of her Duel Monsters, Kara slipped out to wander the halls of the old building from the future alone. So much had happened in one single afternoon; her head was spinning, trying to keep up but not succeeding completely. She almost wished to go back to the future where life was so much simpler and not a mix of old and new. How she had even managed to fight against the dark magic of Haruka was beyond her as well. It had been an in-the-moment decision that just happened to work. She was glad for that. Had it not, she doubted those involved in the fight would have lasted much longer.

_That was too damn close, _Kara thought tiredly. _Carrie was almost lost to us. I mean, sure. She wasn't hurt during the duration of her time out there. But damn it, if my plan had fallen to pieces, she wouldn't have survived. None of those people would have. Then what would have become of the future? There would be no Amyra, no me, no Kahlan, and so many other people would be dead before life could be given to them. Haruka means business and she isn't afraid to kill the innocent just to destroy me._

The thought that so many innocent people from this time and their future descendants could have been destroyed over something she had done in the past hurt Kara in a way very few things had done before. If not for her previous encounter with Yusei, she might have broken down again. But she could not afford to give into her weakness. She couldn't fall into the depths of despair brought on by the memory of her past. The tri-color-haired woman needed to stay strong enough to fight against her mistakes, namely the ones she had made that made Haruka into the person that wanted her erased from all existence. Giving up would just make that part easier for the enemy.

"Kara," Crow said suddenly, disengaging himself from the shadows as she walked by where he had been standing.

She stopped and looked at him, surprised he was speaking to her after he had made it clear beforehand that he didn't trust her with Yusei. His gray eyes no longer held that malice towards her, which she found to be strange. He wasn't the kind of guy to let things go easily and especially not when it came to his childhood friends. Something had changed in his heart. She wondered what had happened to change him and his feelings towards her.

"…Look, I'm not sure how to say this exactly…But I'm sorry about what I said about you earlier," Crow apologized awkwardly as he held her gaze evenly though she could sense he would like nothing better than to look away. "You are Yusei's best friend and I shouldn't distrust you over one bad night where you were too vulnerable to be yourself. You would never hurt Yusei on purpose; I know that. It's just…" The orange-haired man sighed and tried to collect his thoughts as best he could. "That boy has a great deal of feelings for you. We both know that. And I know you're clinging to him as one friend would cling to another, but it might be too much for him. He's sensitive. That's why I'm afraid for him right now. Your seeking his strength might mess with his head and his heart in a way that might not be repairable this time."

"…You're not wrong, Crow, and you have every reason to be concerned about Yusei's heart. You are a good friend to him," Kara said after a moment of silence passed between them and she felt compelled to speak. "Trust me when I say I know all too well what that man feels. Before I was reluctant to admit it…But after today and everything that has happened…I should be honest with you. Yusei is not the only one with feelings beyond friendship in our relationship. I didn't want to have these feelings…Friendship was enough…But it's happened."

Crow seemed genuinely shocked by this. "…You…You mean you love him, too? Well, I definitely didn't see that coming. I…I suppose you realized this after Yusei came for you after Carrie put you down." Kara nodded once. "What are you guys gonna do now?"

Kara shrugged. "We…We haven't talked about it yet. But I really don't believe a relationship between us will work out. I mean, you saw what happened when I tried dating Greiger. I just end up hurting the other person. And Yusei…" Her voice caught in her throat for a moment as she recalled how many times she had caused him pain. "…Haven't I hurt him enough?"

"So you're afraid," Crow stated.

"Yes…I'm afraid," Kara admitted. "I'm afraid of stomping on his heart with my own ignorance and breaking him beyond the point where our relationship can be saved. He wants to help me so much…You know how big his heart is. But his big heart…Won't it only lead to him getting hurt in the end by me?"

"Kara, you gotta stop looking at this relationship like that. Relationships have silver linings that make the pain worthwhile, you know. You can't tell me you didn't have a lot of good times with Greiger when you two were dating," Crow commented. The green-eyed woman would concede that much. He continued, "Yusei is a great guy. Your friendship with him has already made you so happy, and I can only imagine what good it'll do for the both of you if you became a couple. There's much more joy in love than there is pain. Take it from someone who knows because he's very happy with your twin sister. I have been ever since she came into my life after that whole Dark Signer thing. And if me and Jack can find love…I mean, really, if the thief and the jackass can find happiness…You can find that in Yusei, too. But you can't know if you don't try. And I really think you guys should try. What's the worst that could happen?"

"He gets hurt by me or our relationship doesn't work out and we end up hating each other," Kara replied.

"See? That's nothing too bad," Crow teased.

Kara smiled. "I'll think about it, but I'm not making any promises."

"No one's asking you to make promises, just leaps of faith," Crow countered with a grin before pulling her into a hug. "I'm happy you're healing at last, Kara. I know your past isn't the easiest thing to let go of, but it's nice to see you not wallowing in it anymore."

"You can thank Yusei and Kalin for that. Their lecturing me is starting to pay off at long last," Kara told him, returning his hug just as tightly. "I do have just one question. Are you always this good at giving relationship advice?"

Crow chuckled as he released her. "Apparently it's my hidden talent. First I had to give some to Carly, and then I had to give some to you. Maybe I should start a business. On Love's Wings, Relationship Advice by Crow Hogan. It'll probably make me more money than my current job does…"

"And then Jack would just spend it all on overpriced coffee and expensive tacky suits," Kara pointed out.

"Yeah," Crow reluctantly agreed. "Well, let's not keep the others wondering where we wandered off to. We don't want them sending out the search parties or assuming Haruka got us or anything crazy like that."

"I don't think Haruka will be coming back anytime soon. That bitch got nailed by the most powerful of the Egyptian God Monsters. She's gonna be down for awhile," Kara remarked. "We won't have to worry about her for some time."

"She said Carrie would be dead by Christmas morning," Crow reminded her.

"Then I guess we have six days until her marked day. We can start freaking out on Christmas Eve," Kara said.

* * *

><p><em>AN: The beginning bit was boring and terrible because I suck at fighting scenes, but I tried. What did you think of this? Please tell me nicely. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day._


End file.
